'Sink tests, false reports, doctor-lab nexus': Study claims widespread malpractice in path labs

“At least 35 per cent consumers do not trust pathology labs”

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Next time you go for a test at a pathology laboratory near your home or workplace, think twice. A new study has revealed that many of them might be indulging in the practice of “sink tests” where a lab takes your sample only to throw it in a sink and generate a false report. LocalCircles, a social media platform for citizens on issues of “governance, utility and communities”, conducted a six-point survey on pathology laboratories in the country. The survey received over 48,000 responses from over 22,000 unique citizens located in 215 districts across the country.

The survey revealed that at least 35 per cent consumers did not trust the pathology laboratory for getting medical tests done. “Only 17 per cent said that they fully trust the laboratory, while 48 per cent said they had a high level of trust in them but they still remain vigilant. Twenty-eight per cent said they had low level of trust and therefore they stay vigilant. Seven per cent said they had very low or no trust in them,” consumer group LocalCircles said in a press statement.

“Pathology laboratories have mushroomed across the country in the last decade. Now we receive flyers of neighborhood labs with our daily newspaper. Over the last 24 months, citizens have been raising the need for better regulation of these labs on LocalCircles,” the statement said explaining the rationale behind conducting the survey. Around 1000 of the existing over 100,000 operational labs in India are certified by the NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories) and most laboratories are functioning illegally, often providing suspicious/incorrect reports to thousands of patients, the consumer group said.

After the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, was cleared in the parliament last year (replacing the Consumer Protection Act, 1986), the group said, consumers have been demanding that rules be made around consumer protection in the healthcare sector, too. “Within this sector, the functioning of pathology labs has been a top area of citizen concern, just after that of hospitals,” the group has stated.

Aside of trust, the survey also asked consumers if the doctors they had visited over the last one year recommended a specific pathology lab for getting the tests done. The results found that in 33 per cent cases, most of the doctors did so, while another 33 per cent said that only some of them followed the practice of recommending the lab. Only 29 per cent said none of the doctors indulged in this behaviour.

The finding is significant because consumers have also reported that “their doctors force them to get the tests done from a specific lab in their area saying it is better than others or that they would send reports directly to them”.

Also, 30 per cent consumers also reported that a report handed to them by their laboratory in the last three years had been proven wrong while another 32 per cent were unsure about the results.

“Many consumers also reported that their doctor asks them to get general tests like blood count, urine test, LFT, KFT etc. done quite often, even if there might not have been a need for it,” the survey found.

Recently, an audio clip of a doctor talking to a path lab representative went viral on social media, where they were talking about the commission on prescribed tests and generating false reports, the group pointed out in their statement.

An overwhelming number of consumers (92 per cent) also said that errant pathology labs should lose their certification licence if found “incentivising/commissioning doctors to prescribe medical tests”.

The Clinical Establishment Act, 2010 emphasizes on minimum infrastructure that pathology labs should have, but it has still not been adopted by many states. According to the Union health ministry, only 10 states and six UTs have adopted the law. “The central government should make sure that CEA, 2010 is adopted by all states immediately and pathology labs are regulated under it,” the group demanded.

Wrong test results given to patients because of vested interests can have serious health repercussions and citizens are keen that the central and state governments take urgent action on the issue to break the “doctor-path lab commission nexus”.

Another recommendation made by some consumers is standardization of prices and price bands for various tests and mandatory displays of such prices to consumers before they chose to undergo a test.

LocalCircles would also be writing to the various stakeholder departments of the government to urge them to act on the issue.

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