Citizens shouldn't be misled by online health service aggregators on blood sample collection: HC

New Delhi: People should not be misled by online health service aggregators and blood samples should go only to the accredited labs for accurate results, the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday expressing concern on the issue. The high court's observation came while hearing a plea seeking contempt action against the authorities for not adhering to the court's earlier direction to take action against online health service aggregators operating illegally and collecting samples for COVID-19 tests.

The concern is that if you are taking samples of Delhi residents, it should go to accredited labs and the results must be accurate. The court's concern is that citizens should not be misled and samples should not be collected by an agency which is not approved, Justice Najmi Waziri said.

The court had earlier directed the police of Delhi and Haryana to file reports on the action taken by them on a complaint received by the AAP government regarding an online health service aggregator allegedly collecting samples for COVID-19 tests without licence.

On this, the counsel for Haryana Police told the court that after investigation and consideration of material available, it has been concluded that no case is made out to take action against the particular online health service aggregator. Advocate Anil Grover, representing the Haryana Police, said an inquiry committee was constituted by the Director General Health Services of Haryana on allegations against the firm and it has been concluded that prosecution has failed to prove the charges.

On being asked by the court whether the firm has got approvals from the competent authority for collecting samples, the counsel said yes it has everything.

According to you, so no citizen was misled, the court asked and Grover responded, not at all. We have done several inquiries and there is nothing found against the company.

The company, in a reply submitted to Haryana authorities, claimed that it was accredited by the National Accreditation board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and that it was also an approved lab by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

It said that in view of the approval and accreditation from ICMR and NABL respectively, it was allowed to carry out sample collections.

It said collection of samples for other labs was done by entering into appropriate MoU or contracts and that it never performed any COVID-19 test till April 15, 2021 and has only involved in sample collection under the MoU with NABL and ICMR approved COVID-19 Labs.

As the status report filed by Haryana Police was not on record, the court asked the counsel to bring it on record and listed the matter for further hearing on November 25.