The hue and cry about Karnataka to be the first state in the country to announce the guidelines for running private diagnostic laboratories, last month has taken a back seat with the government of Karnataka not showing any interest on the issue. The focus of the policy was qualification and quality control in medical diagnostics but the government of Karnataka seems to have brushed it aside for the present.

In an exclusive interview with Pharmabiz.com, Dr. Chitralekha Dandekar, president, Karnataka Chapter of the Indian Association of Pathologists [KCIAPM] and head of pathology at the M S Ramaiah Medical College, said that despite several representations made by the members of the KCIAPM in the last one month, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

Dr. K M Srinivasa Gowda, professor & head of the pathology department and former president of the KCIAPM told Pharmabiz.com towards the end of October 2000 that serious efforts are on to have a licensing authority along with licensing conditions for running a pathology laboratory in the state.

"We submitted the memorandum when Dr. H C Mahadevappa was the health minister. Now with Dr. A B Malakaraddy as the current minister for health and family welfare, the representation seemed to have seen the light of the day," he said. The next step by the health and family welfare department would be to call of experts in pathology for a round of discussions with the state government.

Dr. Dandekar who is putting in all efforts to see that the Karnataka government makes an initiative in this regard and is waiting the annual conference of the KCIAPM which is scheduled to held in February 2001, to stress the need for a proper policy. According to her, with no guidelines, diagnostics are mushrooming all over the state with no check on their growth.

Another point that Dr. Dandekar brought to light is that the annual conference of KCIAPM could not be held on time due to financial constraints by the pathology departments in medical colleges. The conference may be held in February and has been delayed by four months.

KCIAPM is unable to get sponsors who are mostly pathology equipment manufacturers like Becton Dickenson, Trans Asia to name a few. It is not difficult for the Karnataka government to pass the rule for regularisation, as the Department of Science and Technology, government of India has already framed a draft for the rules in this regard and they can be used as a template by the government of Karnataka to initiate the action further, informed Dr. Dandekar.

The need for guidelines is a must as several diagnostic labs that had come up in Karnataka. The KCIAPM had suggested that all diagnostic labs should be headed by a qualified doctor who should at least have a diploma holder in pathology or preferably a MD in pathology. The diagnostic labs should meet the prescribed standards regarding the space, facilities and trained personnel and should compulsorily be a part of the quality control programme.