KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

A laboratory at IIM Srinagar.
Representational Picture

The unregulated laboratories in Kashmir have put the lives of patients at risk, a doctors’ body said on Tuesday afternoon.

“The absence of regulations is leading to the issuance of misleading or outright wrong laboratory reports,” Doctors Association Body said in a statement.

Describing accuracy of lab tests critical for medical decisions, the DAK said, “more than 70% of medical decisions are based on lab test results and their inaccuracy is causing confusion among doctors and sufferings among patients. Although the Union Government has passed the Clinical Establishment Act in 2010 to bring into its purview the diagnostic industry, but the law is yet to be implemented in JK.”

While “National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories” has been established to ensure quality in labs, “but in JK they operate like mom-and-pop shops in the absence of any binding regulatory norm”, the statement said.

The faulty tests can lead to misdiagnosis, wrong treatment and can unnecessarily cause patients to undergo uncomfortable and even dangerous procedures.

Often patients who have a heart attack or stroke will have their blood analysed so that doctor can determine how much blood thinner to give them.

With too much blood thinner patients can bleed to death, too little, and their blood can clot causing another heart attack and stroke. A wrong sugar report can prove fatal to a diabetic and an incorrect cholesterol test can subject a patient to unnecessary side effects of a lipid lowering agent.

“People running the tests are often inadequately trained and lack awareness of good lab practice,” the statement claimed.

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