Growth of accredited medical laboratories will not only be a boon for the common people but also boost medical tourism in the country, Dr. Thuppil Venkatesh, Principal Adviser to the Quality Council of India said here on Monday. There are only 585 accredited laboratories in India today.
Addressing a four-day certificate course on quality assurance in pathology laboratories, Dr. Venkatesh said: “Today if one goes for a pathological test at five centres there will be five different reports but this will not happen if the lab has got accreditation.”
Over two dozen pathologists and laboratory personnel participated in the four-day Internal Audit and Quality Management System Training Course at the Central Diagnostic laboratory, one of the two accredited centres in Patna of Dr. Anjana Singh. The Foundation for Quality India [FQI] had initiated the programme.
“It’s the 100th IA & QMS certificate course of FQI and Association of Health Care Providers of India [AHPI] and we’re sure that it will lead to improvement in the medicare of the common people,” said Dr. Prasad D. Sawant, who conducted the certificate course. He said that in Gujarat it is mandatory for all the government laboratories to get accreditation. For private laboratories “a felicitation programme with the Chief Minister himself” drives them to get the certificate.
Australia was the first country which introduced this accreditation certificate course and many countries have followed suit.
The course is based on the standard ISO 15189 and designed according to the requirement of International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), said Dr. Venkatesh. The FQI proposed to conduct a similar certificate course for government laboratory personnel in Bihar. In Bihar there are just five accredited labs, two in Patna and one each in Begusarai, Darbhanga and Purnea whereas Delhi, West Bengal and Chennai have the highest numbers of 89, 56 and 54 respectively.
