PUDUCHERRY: Four private laboratories in Puducherry were found carrying out unauthorised COVID-19 tests as well as overcharging patients. Also, they did not report COVID-19 cases to the Health Department. Following this, Director of Health Dr S Mohan Kumar has written to the District Collector cum District Magistrate Purva Garg recommending action against these laboratories.
An inspection by a team of health officials found that four laboratories -- Selvan Clinical Laboratory on Thiyagaraja Street, Red Clinical Lab and ECG, Kavery Nagar, Reddiarpalayam, East Coast Hospitals, Moolakulam and M S Diagnosite Laboratory at Lawspet -- collected throat swabs for Covid testing at a much higher cost than the rates fixed by the government.
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According to an inspection report by the team of Dr R Murali, Deputy Director Public Health cum District Registering Authority, The Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 (CEA), Dr L Ravivarman, State Surveillance Officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and M Neelathachi, Admin Staff, CEA office, none of the labs have availed permission to conduct or collect RTPCR samples and rapid antigen samples from the Puducherry government.
The test samples were collected from patients both at the lab and from their residence and sent to labs located in Chennai and Kanchipuram. The test results were not reported to the state IDSP till date by all these four laboratories, but directly sent to the patients alone.
The bill or invoice has not been maintained and were not available in all these labs. Though the amount was fixed at Rs 500 for an RT-PCR test and communication sent not to collect more than Rs 500 for rapid antigen test, the written registers showed that around Rs 2000 to Rs 2500 was collected for each RT-PCR test in all the labs.
It was observed during the inspection that East Coast Hospital collected Rs 4000 for RT-PCR and Rs 1500 for rapid antigen test, as per the bill receipts retrieved from it.
The inspection was done following complaints of overcharging by five laboratories. However, the inspection team found that Numa Lab (Lister Lab), Puducherry, was not involved in the collection of swabs or Covid testing, said the report.