Give test report in 24 hours, NMC tells pvt labs

Anjaya Anparthi | TNN | Apr 29, 2020, 04:39 IST

Nagpur: After a case in which body of a deceased was not released for five days due to late receipt of report, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has warned of action against private laboratories if they fail to give reports of Covid-19 tests within 24 hours. No such stipulation exists for government labs though.
Collector Ravindra Thakare has also halted permission to a private laboratory for collecting swab samples here and sending them to Mumbai for testing.
NMC chief medical officer Dr Yogendra Savai held a meeting with representatives of four private laboratories on Monday and Tuesday. “Private laboratories are supposed to give reports within 24 hours. Collector office has mentioned this condition in permission given to a private laboratory. Private labs in city are not having authorization for testing here. Four of them are collecting samples and sending them to their centres in Mumbai that have the authorization. The samples are being sent through road or railways. It is not possible for them to give reports in 24 hours. We made it clear to private laboratories that action will be taken in case reports were not given in 24 hours. We requested them not to collect samples as reporting in 24 hours seems very difficult,” he said.
Savai added, “One private laboratory (Clinicare Specialty Laboratory) is having permission from collector office for collection of samples here and sending it for testing to Mumbai. Three more private laboratories are doing the same citing authorization for their Mumbai-based laboratories,” he said.
TOI on April 28 had highlighted a family from Bhaldarpura got possession of body of deceased from Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on fifth day. Swab samples of deceased were collected by a private laboratory when he was alive on April 23. GMCH refused to hand over body to the deceased as report was awaited. It came on evening of April 26. The family got body on April 27.
In this case, the NMC had issued show-cause notice to the laboratory and hospital.
Savai said, “Delay of reports cause problem in case patient dies. It will be very difficult in case of antenatal care (ANC) cases that require caesarean within a few hours. There are some more such patients who require reports urgently,” he said.
City has five government laboratories — AIIMS, GMCH, IGGMCH, Mafsu and Neeri. Samples from all over Vidarbha are tested here. Reports of deceased are delivered within 24 hours. In city, NMC’s team will collect samples from private hospitals and send them to government laboratories for testing.
One of four private laboratories has reportedly stopped collection of samples after directives of NMC citing it was not possible to get reports in 24 hours.
Dr Rajkumar Rathi from Clinicare Speciality Laboratory told TOI, “We received letter from collector office asking to stop collection on temporary basis. We will discuss the matter with collector tomorrow and take further decision. We are able to deliver reports within 24 hours,” he said.
In case of a cancer patient who tested positive a couple of days ago, reports came in two days.