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Delhi-based doctor appeals to Supreme Court, urges it to tweak order on free Covid-19 tests
The plea by a Delhi based doctor, Kaushal Kant Mishra submitted that only economically weaker sections of the society should be allowed to test for coronavirus free-of-cost in private laboratories and the government should reimburse the labs immediately after such a test is conducted.
Burdening private laboratories to offer free Covid-19 tests will disincentivise their continued functioning posing a grave risk to people’s health, a plea filed before the Supreme Court on Friday stated seeking modification of the apex court’s April 8 order directing private laboratories to offer free coronavirus tests.
The plea by a Delhi based doctor, Kaushal Kant Mishra submitted that only economically weaker sections of the society should be allowed to test for coronavirus free-of-cost in private laboratories and the government should reimburse the labs immediately after such a test is conducted.
“If the Government does not provide immediate reimbursement to the private laboratories, there is a real risk that the laboratories may stop testing for Covid-19, thus posing a direct and inevitable risk to the health of people across India through unknown transmission and contraction of the disease,” the application filed by Dr. Mishra said.
Besides seeking modification of the April 8 order, Dr. Mishra also sought establishment of pathogen laboratories in local municipal and panchayat areas so that free testing by the government can be increased.
The Supreme Court had on Wednesday made tests for Covid-19 in private laboratories free, and asked the government to pass the necessary orders so as to make this possible. The tests are already free in government laboratories.
According to a March 17 advisory issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research, private laboratories were allowed to charge upto Rs. 4,500 to test for Covid-19.
Advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi had moved the Supreme Court seeking free testing for Covid-19. He had pointed out that government hospitals are packed to capacity making it difficult for the common man to get himself/herself tested in the government labs.
With no alternative in sight, they are forced to pay money to get the tests done at private labs, Sudhi said, adding that saddling ordinary citizens with such financial burden effectively deprives them of their accessibility to medical facilities and is violative of right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
“We find prima facie substance in the submission of petitioner that at this time of national calamity permitting private labs to charge Rs.4500 for screening and confirmation test of Covid-19may not be within means of a large part of population of this country and no person should be deprived from undergoing the Covid-19 test due to nonpayment of capped amount of Rs.4500,” the court had ordered on Wednesday.
The apex court, during the hearing that day, also asked the government to explore a way to reimburse private laboratories, although it did not pass any order to this effect.
Dr. Mishra, who is a senior Orthopedic surgeon, formerly at AIIMS, and presently at the super-specialty Primus Hospital, in Chanakyapuri submitted that several citizens have now been admitted and confined to hospitals and other facilities as Covid-19 suspects, but their test results remain pending for long periods, putting a strain on the system.
“Even the present capacity of the labs, both government and private appear to be woefully insufficient to obtain accurate data and control the pandemic”
It was his plea that in such a scenario, casting the additional burden of offering tests for free could lead to private labs stopping their functioning altogether.
“..at a time when testing across the country has to be ramped up and the nation enters the most critical phase, the private labs have been burdened with offering free testing, ignoring the fact that the few pathogen labs which are well equipped at the time of the disaster would be actually disincentivized to continue to function,” the plea said.
Few of the private laboratories, he submitted, have reservations about going ahead with testing unless it is clear about where the funding for the same would come from.
“There does not appear to be a clear commitment from the governments, either Central or State to take on any extent of the burden…Mumbai based Thyrocare has already said that it is putting its Covid-19 testing on hold until there is further clarity on the finances,” Dr. Mishra submitted.
