Lab technician clarifies on CCpur hospital controversy

By A Staff Reporter

IMPHAL |Aug 29

Reacting to a news report in the IFP that a 78 year old patient was refused free laboratory test facility made available as a policy of the government, the doctor in charge of the laboratory at the Churachandpur District Hospital and the laboratory technician, clarified that the patient was not denied the facility but only asked to return with OPD ticket which is mandatory for availing the facility.

The clarification said the patient came to the Bio Chemistry laboratory and sought to avail of its facility only on the strength of the recommendation of a lady doctor doing private practice, but had not gone through the procedure of first registering and getting an OPD ticket of the hospital.

The lab technician, also a lady, had advised the patient to return the next day after going through the due process of acquiring the hospital’s OPD ticket, and also to come in the morning during the hours reserved for blood sample collection.

The patient party however turned up at the laboratory in the afternoon, and also without the hospital OPD ticket again, and hence the lab assistant was constrained not to allow the use of the laboratory facility.

She was however willing to do the test even though it was late, but only if the patient party first acquired the OPD ticket, they said.

Instead of doing the needful, the patient party went to the press and made unfair allegations against the management of the laboratory, they lamented.

They said they had clear instruction from the top that no patient without proper OPD ticket should be entertained, as this would lead to doctors doing private practices misusing the government facilities for their private ends.

On the charge that the doctor in charge of the Biochemistry laboratory not being always present at the laboratory, they clarified that because of shortage of staff, the doctor in question had been handed additional responsibilities of heading two other OPDs, that of NCD (Non Communicable Diseases) and that of ART (Antiretroviral Therapy), besides being made the nodal officer of NPCDCS (National Programme of Prevention of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke).

This being the case, the concerned doctor could only be present at the Bio Chemistry laboratory for a certain time only during the day, but the lab assistant is always present during duty hour, they further clarified.