AHMEDABAD, SEPT 23
The Gujarat government on Wednesday said strict action will be taken against private laboratories engaged in COVID-19 testing if they are found violating the standard operating procedure.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani directed the state health department to conduct a state-wide investigation on private laboratories, after a report in a Gujarati daily stated that several of them were offering “bogus negative certificates” without collecting samples or providing details of tests.
As per a government release, the issue was discussed in a State Cabinet meeting chaired by Rupani in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.
The state government has taken a serious note of the reports published in the media and immediate action has been taken against Surat’s Tejas Lab under the Epidemic Diseases Act and its licence cancelled, principal health secretary Jayanti Ravi said.
Orders have been issued to take strict action, including police action, against private laboratories that were giving bogus reports, she said.
“Senior officials of the health department and district health officials will conduct random inspection of private laboratories and will take action if any irregularity is found,” she said in the release.
The authorities will investigate if private laboratories were operating as per SOP, testing registers are properly maintained, proper pathologists are available, how biomedical waste is being disposed of etc, the official said.
