Private labs not being used optimally: Delhi High Court

Following this, the court said that as per the updated information on the website of Delhi government, only a maximum of 7,000 tests are being conducted daily, which means that the available capacity of 3,700 is not being utilised, “which is most unacceptable”.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that it is “most unacceptable” that the testing facilities of the private laboratories are not being used to their optimum capacity for diagnosing Covid-19, though they have not expressed any hesitation in ramping up the number of testing.

New Delhi, India - June 18, 2020: A health worker collects a swab sample from a person to test for coronavirus infection, at a COVID-19 testing lab in Patel Nagar, New Delhi, India, on Thursday, June 18, 2020. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/ Hindustan Times) (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad also said that with the cases rising up to 47,102 as of Wednesday, the committee constituted by the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal to advise and assist the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), should immediately look into the concerns raised by the various private labs and also ramp up testing in the national capital.

The court’s remarks came while hearing a plea by advocate Sanjeev Sharma who contended that there have been several instances where non-Covid patients needing surgery or other procedures were asked to undergo testing before that, but the hospital concerned did not conduct the Covid test since they don’t have the government permission.

Advocate Satyakam, the additional standing counsel of the Delhi government, informed the court that the number of public laboratories equipped to undertake COVID-19 tests has been increased from 17 to 18 and for the private laboratories, from 23 to 25 in number. He also said that both public and private sector laboratories have now been ramped up to collectively undertake 10,700 tests per day, as against the previous capacity of 8,600 tests per day.

“Besides, as recommended by the ICMR, on June 14, Delhi is going to undertake point of care rapid antigen detection test that will quickly augment testing capacity in various containment zones and health facilities,” the Delhi government said.

However, on a specific enquiry from the court, as to whether the number of increased testing mentioned in the affidavit filed in the court, the counsel said that he does not have the exact numbers.

Following this, the court said that as per the updated information on the website of Delhi government, only a maximum of 7,000 tests are being conducted daily, which means that the available capacity of 3,700 is not being utilised, “which is most unacceptable”.

“The conclusion is that the testing facilities of the private laboratories are not being used to their optimum capacity, though they have not expressed any hesitation in ramping up the number of testing,” it said.

The submissions by the Delhi government show that the testing capacity in Delhi has gone up by 2,100 tests a day. The government had planned to double Covid-19 testing in the city within two days after a meeting with the Union home minister Amit Shah of Monday. It also rolled out antigen testing in 169 centres across the city on Thursday in an effort to ramp up testing for the viral infection.

On Thursday, advocate Rakesh Malhotra, counsel for the petitioner, informed the court that out of 23 private labs authorized for the testing of Covid-19, 12 have filed replies with some of them highlighting the problems faced by them in conducting tests.

One of the issues flagged by the private laboratories is that they are being made to undertake a cumbersome process of contemporaneously uploading patient registration forms on the various apps and portals. They stated that these require engaging several data entry operators so that the information can be provided to multiple government agencies on a daily basis, thereby wasting valuable time and diverting their energies from the testing process.

The labs also said that they are being told to define patient categories through the phlebotomists who are required to go on-site to collect the samples when they are not equipped or trained for it. They also contended that for being authorized to collect samples, all the phlebotomists are required to be registered in the given districts and there is a duplication in the said process thereby hindering the work of collecting the samples and curtailing the number of Phlebotomists who would otherwise be available to collect the samples. It had also said that the number of the testing kits vendors identified by the Delhi Government, may be increased in proportion to the tests required to be undertaken.

Following this, the court said that the committee constituted by the L-G to advise the DDMA can look into the grievances and directed the Delhi government to file the report by the next date of hearing.

The matter would be now heard on June 22.