NEW DELHI: While the per day testing rates have gone up in the national capital, some labs have been registering false negatives, something which the government is looking into.
While district administrators are somewhat satisfied with the work being done, private players feel the treatment being meted out to them is not entirely fair.
“None of the government labs are NABH accredited, whereas, the private ones are. In RT-PCR, there is nothing known as false positivity. There can only be false negativity. There can be cases where swab samples may not have been collected correctly, but a positive report cannot be created inside labs... We stand by our reports,” said a representative of a private lab. Kejriwal has previously raised the issue of “some labs” not doing their job properly.
“It is time to fight the pandemic and not ourselves, but the government approach is not encouraging. We don’t want to get involved in any sort of argument with the state on this matter,” added the representative.
The government is now relying more on Rapid Antigen Testing kits rather than PCRs.
“We are currently using one lab out of the three available but now the administration is relying more on Rapid Antigen Tests because they are faster,” said Shashi Koushal, DM North East.
Meanwhile, Dr Harjit Bhatti, national president, Progressive Medicos & Scientists Forum (PMSF) criticised both private facilities and the government for their shortcomings.
“India’s healthcare system, especially, the private sector is so unregulated that sometimes one can compare it to hooliganism rather than public service. Several stakeholders work in a close-knit nexus and few among them try to exploit patients for their personal gain. So chances of private labs giving misleading reports can be true, but the government’s work is to monitor & regulate them... If authorities only threaten them in front of cameras but allow them to exploit patients behind the scenes, then the government is equally responsible for the loot and mischief," said Dr Bhatti.