Fake path labs can be as dangerous as quacks

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In a bid to bust the fake path lab scam, State Industries Minister Uday Samant said that the government would soon introduce a law to monitor and control pathology laboratories in the state.

The law will look into registration, rules for operation and punishment. In what will be a surprise element, there are also going to be flying squads set up to scrap the registration of pathology labs working without registration under the Maharashtra Paramedical Council.

The issue of unauthorised pathology laboratories in the state was raised in the Assembly. It is said that these posed a threat to the public because there was a massive difference in the fees charged by them. Also, there were instances of such labs giving fake results.

The ‘soon' needs to be defined for the law, there must be a definite timeline delineated for the law to monitor and control these fake labs. This is an extremely serious problem, considering that treatment is started on the basis of reports at times, and we need to weed out the scamsters in double quick time as lives are at stake. Instead of endless debate and dilly-dallying, if leaders do know of and realise that this is a widespread malaise, one needs to get cracking in quick time.

It would be wise then for the flying squads if they establish that a lab is a sham, to look at the genesis. Are there more such labs within the vicinity itself? How did it manage to fly below the radar?

With some answers, they would enable the authorities to assess whether this is only the tip of the iceberg or there are one or two con organisations with these path labs.

There also has to be action with a vision that once shut down, these do not reappear. There needs to be a sense of urgency to ensure only registered labs are in practice.