The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in collaboration with the National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) recently organised a seminar on 'importance of quality in laboratory practice in India'.

The seminar, in Noida, was inaugurated by Dr S K Sood, professor and head Pathology (retd.), AIIMS. Dr Anil Relia, director, NABL, Ashok Kr Gogna, Junior Accreditation Officer, NABL; Dr Punam Bajaj, Accreditation Officer, Gr-II, NABL were the keynote speakers of the event.

The prime agenda of the seminar was to ensure maximising excellence in laboratory services. The seminar was engaged in open-discussion with medical practitioners and physicians across the country to reiterate the need for quality, accreditation, regulations and standardisation of lab services in India.

The management of leading laboratories including Metropolis Healthcare Ltd., Dr Lal Pathlabs and Oncquest Laboratories have affirmed that NABL is the highest quality standard in lab services available in the country today. They cited the example of External Quality Assurance Services (EQAS), an important component of NABL accredited labs, where same set of samples are tested in multiple labs all over the world which ensures that the tests done in Indian NABL labs are at par with the world’s best labs.

On the occasion, Dr Jatinder Bhatia, Chief of Lab Services - North India, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd., one of the leading laboratory chains in India, said, “NABL accreditation for a laboratory is equivalent to an ISI mark for manufacturing goods. However there is lack of awareness about the importance of accreditations amongst the users of lab services. Hence the government needs to take necessary steps to ensure that lab accreditation is made mandatory.”

Shobha Mishra Ghosh, director, FICCI, announced that seminars will be organised by FICCI in different cities of the country in association with the IMA and prominent Indian laboratories to sensitise physicians who are the key stakeholders of these laboratory services.

The pathology industry in India is around Rs.10,000 crore and about Rs.1,000 crore is managed by organised sector comprising handful of top laboratories. The remaining 90 per cent is in the unorganised sector which is fragmented. Initiatives such as these will help to create awareness amongst the physician community about the importance of accreditation of labs for minimising diagnostic errors and facilitating the Government to move towards mandatory NABL accreditation for both organised and unorganised laboratories.