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Telangana state adopts new Clinical Establishment Act to streamline diagnostic centers
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A Raju, Hyderabad
March 31 , 2017
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The Telangana state government has adopted the new Clinical
Establishment Act to streamline diagnostic centers and ensure
accountability and transparency. According to the new Act, it has now
made it mandatory for all doctors attached with diagnostic laboratories
to get registered with the Medical Council of India (MCI) and State
Medical Council (SMC). While, earlier the diagnostic reports were
prepared by the lower grade technicians and it was usually signed by
untrained and non experienced M.Sc graduates.
However, with the
adoption of new Act, it now stipulates that the M.Sc. graduates cannot
sign the diagnostic reports and only qualified doctors must sign and
approve the final diagnostic reports. According to healthcare experts,
the new Act is a well initiative taken up by the government to
streamline the diagnostic centers and make them more responsible with
their reports. In fact, in many instances earlier, there were drastic
differences observed in diagnostic reports taken for same person from
different diagnostic centers. This clearly reflects the stark reality as
to how authentic is these diagnostic centers and their reports. “At
present the practice is that even though there are doctors attached to
the diagnostic centers, the actual interpretation of the reports is done
by the technicians or M.Sc graduates, but with the introduction of the
new act, it will help the patients with better quality diagnostic
reports approved by a registered doctor,” observed Sampath, in charge of
a leading diagnostic center.
There are 60,000 pathology
laboratories in India. In Hyderabad, blood samples are collected at
local centers but the pathological testing is carried out in the main
centers which may be in Bengaluru or Mumbai and the results are given
the next day. However, as these reports are very important as it
determines the future course of treatment for a patient, it needs to be
approved and signed by a qualified and registered doctor instead of M.Sc
post-graduate. Except for accredited diagnostic centers that are very
particular and follow the norms strictly, in majority of diagnostic
centers in the country, they have appointed less qualified laboratory
technicians whose job is to do the laboratory work and not to interpret
the final results. The final interpretation must be done by a doctor,
who can identify the exact disease.
Another doctor, who is a
senior radiologist from Hyderabad, opined that in some centers, the
technicians are allowed to interpret the radiology reports. However if
this act is strictly implemented it will give better quality reports to
the patients. “Ultra sound, CT scan and MRI reports must be interpreted
by a radiologist only, this work cannot be left to technicians,” says Dr
K Rajesh, a senior radiologists.
Overall experts felt that if
the new Clinical Establishment Act is implemented as intended, it will
help remove quacks and unqualified people running the diagnostic
centers.
But again there are also voices that are going against
the new Act. According to Sridhar Rao, president of the National M.Sc
Medical Teachers Association, it is not in favour of the new rules under
the Act. “M.Sc degree holders are also registered in the Central and
state level medical councils and they must not be barred from
interpreting and signing laboratory reports. We want the government to
rethink on this issue and M.Sc students are also trained in clinical
diagnostics including specimen collection, processing, quality control
and also interpretation of the results,” opined Sridhar Rao.
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