Kolkata: Some of the private laboratories which have been conducting Covid tests across the state allegedly came up with 'inconclusive' and 'wrong' reports of many samples in the initial stage that had resulted in the slow tests rate.
According to a senior doctor who looks after the pathology department of a government run-hospital in the state said that many of the Covid sample reports done by private labs were eventually found incorrect. As a result there were discrepancies in the report which had not baffled the patients and their family members; it also delayed the entire process because the government laboratories had to perform swab tests on the patients, claimed the pathologist. Discrepancies were also found in government run labs as well.
As the Covid cases went up there was a huge demand for the swab tests as a result of which both the government and private owned labs had to put in place adequate mechanisms within a very short span of time. As the days passed the situation has improved. As some of the private labs failed to produce required results the pressure mounted on the government owned labs.
A retired blood bank in-charge of a government hospital in the state said that the discrepancies in report are not unusual and it occurs particularly when the technicians at the lab are not adequately trained. If the quality check is not done on a regular basis this type of incident may occur. "Many of the private labs do not properly follow the quality check properly. An internal check must be done on a daily basis while the external check must be conducted once in a month in ideal situations. There may be some lapses in the initial level. As the time went by, the labs also filled up the gaps. The health department has also deployed a protocol monitoring team to examine the functioning of various private labs," the retired blood bank in charge maintained.
It may be mentioned here that the Health department stopped the Covid tests at a private lab in New Town for some time after the department found some flaws in the procedure. There have been some instances reported across the state where some private labs had allegedly carried out the Covid tests without proper license.
A senior official attached to the blood bank of a medical college hospital in the city said: "There were some discrepancies found in the Covid report in some cases. Sometimes reports may vary from one lab to another for some factors. It needs to be looked into if the testing kits are fine. In case of rapid antigen tests, the flaws are more but in case of RT-PCR the chances of error are minimal.