Special squads of the Health Department, which inspected laboratories, X-ray units, and scan centres across the State on Tuesday, have found that those running the tests in a good number of these labs and scan centres do not even have the basic qualification.
A chunk of the institutions did not have the mandatory licences and many labs were found to be using reagents past the expiry date. A good number of labs did not follow universal precautions and some 300 labs/dental clinics were found using unsterilised equipment.. The inspections were conducted in private laboratories, dental hospitals and clinics, and scan/X-ray units as part of the Safe Kerala drive, a public health initiative of the Health Department to prevent and check the spread of infectious diseases.
Unsafe practicesThe department decided to focus on labs and dental clinics as the number of cases of Hepatitis B infections, spread through unsafe and unhygienic injection practices or dental devices, were steadily going up in the State.
Health officials said their raids unearthed several shocking unhygienic practices in labs, which posed serious public health hazards. The squads examined 2,825 private labs, 458 X-ray units, 212 scan centres, and 783 dental hospitals/clinics in all districts across the State.
“As per the records we examined, 835 people employed as technical staff in laboratories and handling various tests did not have the required qualifications such as DMLT or Bsc MLT. Some 70-odd X-ray technicians and seven scan centre technical staff also did not have the necessary qualifications to do the job. In one of the labs in Thiruvananthapuram, we were shocked to discover that the refrigerator was also being used to store meat,” health officials said.
The police filed a case against a lab in Alappuzha after the squad found that it was using the same lab material exclusively used by government labs. The majority of the labs did not have proper waste disposal facilities and a good number of labs and scan centres did not have the mandatory licences from the local bodies or the authorities concerned. A total of 898 of these institutions did not have adequate infrastructure. About 326 institutions, including 269 labs, were using equipment which had not been calibrated. Substandard reagents, test kits, and stains were in use in 552 labs.
Shut downThe Health Department shut down 120 institutions found to be functioning in gross violations. Notices were issued to 1,121 institutions, while legal action was taken against 24.
Those without the mandatory radiation safety norms or licences were reported to the respective local bodies and the Department of Radiation Safety.
Senior officials of the Public Health Wing of the Health Department and nodal officer for Safe Kerala P. K. Raju coordinated the raids.
