Advanced Clinical Research (ACR) laboratories will be started in all district headquarter hospitals, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar has said.
He was inaugurating a 24-hour ACR lab run by the Kerala Health Research and Welfare Society at Women and Children (W&C) Hospital, Thycaud, on Friday.
Mini-labs
Mr. Sivakumar said that mini-labs would be opened in 250 primary health centres soon.
At present, the ACR labs function only in medical colleges and the Payyannur government hospital. The ACR labs have earned a name for high levels of accuracy and sensitivity of test results as the tests are done on superior quality and imported analyser machines, a press note said.
Mr. Sivakumar said the various services and concessions given to patients by the ACR labs at medical colleges would be extended to the patients at W&C Hospital too.
The rates charged for various diagnostic procedures in the ACR labs are much lower than those charged by private labs. All biochemistry tests, hormone tests, and various cardiac diagnostics are available at these labs.
Facilities for all kinds of lab investigations required for infants had been made available, Mr. Sivakumar said.
