MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has issued notice to the principal secretary of the Health and Family Department to respond within two weeks on a PIL seeking a report on the number of qualified sonologists working in private scan centres across the State.
A bench comprising Justices S Tamilvanan and V S Ravi also directed the Director of Medical and Rural Health Services and the Joint director, Medical and Rural Health Services, Usilampatti, to respond.
In his petition, C Anand Raj, executive director of ‘Equal Right’, an NGO, submitted that most of the private scan centres in the State did not stick to the guidelines prescribed by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and under section 2 (p) of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994, which mandated that either a doctor holding MBBS degree or persons qualified as MD in Radiology, DMRD and diploma in Medical Radio Diagnosis shall undergo training for conducting scans. But in most of the private scan centres, non-qualified persons did the scans in clear violation of rules, he contended.
Further, Anand Raj elaborated that scans played a pivotal role in diagnosing the patients, particularly pregnant women. While scans are used generally to identify diseases, in the case of pregnant women, scanning is used to see the development of the foetus, he observed.
In such circumstances, it is important to appoint qualified persons at scan centres. “I have learned through newspaper reports and personal visits to various hospitals in the State that patients died due to improper scanning and diagnosis,” he claimed.
Petitioner contended that he had submitted representations to the concerned authorities to ascertain whether the centres were run adhering to the guidelines prescribed by the MCI, but only in vain. Hence, the present petition.