Govt to empanel pvt hospitals for taking samples of suspects

Government facilities will test these samples free of cost. It is mandatory for private hospital/clinics and labs to have a separate isolated area for suspected patients of Covid-l9, where the sample will be taken. The person taking the sample should be in full protective gear. Punjab health and family welfare department order

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab health and family welfare department has decided to involve private hospitals in testing for covid-19 and will empanel these to take samples. These hospitals will only take samples, charging not more than Rs 1,000 for the service, with government facilities to carry out the actual test.

Civil surgeons will carry empanel these hospitals at the district level with only those having a flu ward eligible to apply. State health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said private hospitals would need to arrange all logistics for the purpose, including kits. “Government facilities will test these samples free of cost. It has been made mandatory that private hospital/clinics and labs should have a separate isolated area for suspected patients of covid-l9, where the sample will be taken. The person taking the sample should be in full protective gear,” reads the letter that director, health and family welfare, has sent to all civil surgeons.

The private hospital will pack the sample in an ice-box and send it to the nearest government testing facility as per protocol. The hospitals would ensure filling all testing data, as per the protocol of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on the RT-PCR App, as RT-PCR is the name of the technique used in the test.

WHO CAN GIVE SAMPLE IN PRIVATE FACILITIES?

Sidhu added symptomatic international or domestic travellers, symptomatic contacts of confirmed covid-19 patient, symptomatic persons coming from containment zones/hot-spots, asymptomatic high-risk contacts of COVID-19 patient, asymptomatic/symptomatic front-line workers and symptomatic returnees or migrants.

ILL-PLANNED MOVE, SAYS PRIVATE HOSPITALS

Private hospitals are jittery over this move with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) terming it as ‘ill-planned’.

“The government which was earlier not ready to involve private hospitals in its planning seems to have exhausted itself in carrying out testing. Now, officials want us to take samples without providing any training to our staff. We don’t have any problem in serving the state, but the government should make efforts to train our staff to take samples,” said Dr Navjot Dahiya, IMA Punjab president. He added that the decision was taken without taking them into confidence, with little planning done on managing covid-related biomedical waste.

“Private hospitals had been dithering on carrying out covid-19 testing, because of risk of infection to its staff. At least, now these hospitals don’t have any excuse as they can earn from this,” said a senior health department functionary.