Written by Regulations or Accreditations ??? – beginning of a new conundrum
Medical Labs are undoubtedly an important part of the health ecosystem in any country but in India, like many other sectors related to health and safety, they have remained largely unregulated and therefore lacking assurance of quality and reliability.
The Clinical Establishments Act, 2010 intended to fill this gap but unfortunately only 11 states and almost all union territories have adopted the Act till now and from all accounts none has enforced the minimum standards prescribed under it. Therefore, there is not even data on how many medical labs are operating in the country much less any measure of their quality. The role of medical labs came into sharper focus as covid pandemic set in and India scrambled to develop covid testing facilities.The question begs an answer not only in relation to covid testing but for the larger issue of assuring quality of medical labs in general in the country.
Read the informative post by Mr Anil Jauhri, International Conformity Assessment Expert about Medical Labs and whether they need Regulations or Accreditations in the country .
Source : Healthcare Quality News Letter from QAI – http://www.qai.org.in/