Rs 1.98 cr spent on reimbursing private labs for Covid testing

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, March 9

Failing to expand the RT-PCR testing capacity in government institutions during the second wave, the Chandigarh Administration had to spend Rs1.98 crore on reimbursing bills submitted by private laboratories for Covid testing, a response from an RTI revealed.

RTI activist RK Garg had sought details on bills paid by the Chandigarh Administration to private laboratories for Covid testing.

These bills amounting Rs9,81,8600 correspond to period between March to June, 2021, when private laboratories were pulled in for conducting tests in the city so as to enhance the RT-PCR capacity during the second wave.

A majority of the reimbursement has been made to Atulaya Healthcare, followed by AAL Research Solutions.

The UT Administration had roped in private testing laboratories to meet the target set by the Union Health Ministry. The ministry had asked the UT to increase the share of the RT-PCR tests to 80 per cent of the total tests.

The UT Administrator directed the PGI authorities to enhance the sample testing to 1,200 per day and the GMCH, Sector 32, was asked to increase the capacity to 400 RT-PCR tests per day, but the capacity could not be stretched beyond 950 samples a day.

The turnaround time in RT-PCR Covid reports was more than three to four days in government laboratories, which was delaying contact tracing and the infection was spreading.

Consequently, on the pattern of Haryana, the UT Administration had to rope in private players to increase the RT-PCR testing ratio as per the instructions of the Centre.

The UT Administration had decided to pay Rs500 per sample to private laboratories to give the Covid-19 report within 24 hours.

The UT Health Department sent samples collected by it to private laboratories and reimbursed their bills.

After nearly two years into the pandemic, Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, finally set up full-fledged RT-PCR laboratory with capacity of 200 tests per day in February this year.

With this, the city now has four government facilities for the RT-PCR testing — the PGI, GMCH, GMSH and IMTECH — and three private laboratories. The RT-PCR capacity of the PGI stands at 2,500 samples per day and that of the GMCH at around 1,000 samples per day.

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