testing

Thyrocare

Sion Hospital

With the two largest labs out of action, the testing in Mumbai will suffer severely

National Institute of Virology

The testing capacity in Mumbai has reduced afterLab received a notice from the BMC’s public health department asking them to stop testing till they give a reply. Earlier the Metropolis had received a notice for alleged lapses. Both have stopped working for BMC and were the largest private testing laboratories and also did home collection.On April 22, the Thyrocare was given a notice by executive health officer Dr Padmaja Keskar and deputy executive health officer Pranita Tipre. The notice mentions serious lapses in reporting of testing of Covid-19 samples.Sources in public health department said that Dr Sujata Baweja ofused to send samples collected by them to Thyrocare. It was observed that there was a backlog in reporting and problems of incompleteness of reports –the addresses and contact numbers of patients were either incomplete or wrongly written. This has resulted in delays in contact tracing at field level and spread of disease in the community in these areas of patients residence, the notice said.“This results in gross irregularities and negligence on your part in testing samples of Covid-19. Considering the scale of spread of Covid-19 pandemic, there are serious implications of any lapses and irregularities in dealing with the issue,” it said. The lab was asked to rectify the errors. The notice also said that they were asked why licence should not be cancelled and action under the Epidemic diseases act is not taken. They were also told to stop testing till they gave reply.Thyrocare owner Arokiaswami Velumani said, “The BMC had requested for KYC data of tests we have reported. These samples were given to us without proper test requisition formats. Finally, we could trace and give the data needed in 24 hours. Nothing is pending now. Now, we don’t touch samples without test requisition formats.’’He said that they used to do 600 samples for BMC and 400 for others. But in the last three days, they have done zero for BMC and 250 for others, Velumani said.Earlier on April 17, the BMC’s health department had issued notice to Metropolis Laboratories.This notice was about Additional commissioner Suresh Kakani asking Metropolis to send samples of Worli Koliwada residents to BMC’s Kasturba hospital on April 15, but it was sent toin Pune. The notice also mentioned that when Metropolis was told to send samples to NIV just once a month, there was no need to send them on April 16. The notice also said that when samples were sent to NIV, Pune the aliquots (a portion of a larger whole, especially a sample taken for chemical analysis or other treatment) were found in the lab. When the BMC staff visited the lab, no one from Metropolis cooperated. The notice also said that two samples tested on April 12 by Altona kit on Rotorgene platform had the sample ID of 11205002557 against two different names and both these patients were positive, which is a case of gross negligence.The notice also said that assistant commissioner of G South ward pointed that asymptomatic patients were also being tested which is against ICMR guidelines.They were also told to stop testing till a reply was given.A metropolis spokesperson Nadhiya Mali said, “Our notice does not pertain to delay in testing, quality, or mismatch of results but it pertains to administrative issues. We are working closely with authorities to provide the best possible testing support.”