Private lab slapped with six-day ban on dengue tests

A private clinical laboratory in the city has been barred for six days from carrying out blood tests for patients suffering from fever by health authorities following the detection of certain procedural lapses in conducting analysis.

The action was a sequel to a surprise check carried out on the Doctors Diagnostic Centre, Woraiyur, by a team of public health officials and micro biologists led by City Health Officer R. Chitra a few days ago. The action has been taken on the direction of Collector K. Rajamani.

Speaking to The Hindu, Deputy Director of Health Services, I. Ravindran, said the team found several procedural lapses in carrying out blood sample analysis of patients. Manual washing of ELISA kit was among the violations found during the inspection. Based on the instruction of the Collector, a notice had been served on the laboratory on Monday. It was asked not to receive blood samples for fever cases for six days. It has been asked to rectify the shortcomings within six days.

Mr. Ravindran said a team of public health officials, including the Deputy Director of Health Services, Dean, K.A.P.Viswanatham Medical College, and the City Health Officer, would again visit the laboratory to verify whether all mandatory requirements were put in place to analyse blood samples of fever cases.

City Health Officer Dr.Chitra said the laboratory should not do manual washing of blood sample kit. It might lead to false indication of dengue fever. Moreover, there should be a provision to get printed information about the results from the diagnostic equipment. If the laboratory failed to put the system in place, it would not be allowed to carry out analysis.

Mr. Ravindran said alternative arrangements had been made to carry out dengue and fever analysis at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital in Tiruchi and the Government Hospital in Manapparai. No fee would be charged for the blood analysis of patients admitted to the Government hospitals. A fee of ₹140 would be charged for analysing blood samples of patients referred by private doctors.

In order to cross-check the results of blood analysis, private laboratories had been asked to send 10% of samples to the government laboratory of the Tiruchi and Manapparai hospitals.

source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/private-lab-slapped-with-six-day-ban-on-dengue-tests/article19837727.ece