Hope till know none of us have a clear idea about the omissions and commissions of laboratory errors, in much of the consumer related issues with morbidity and mortality only practicing Doctors are sued and matters dragged in the courts, with consumer awareness many are aware that Physicians do a little examination and dependent on laboratory investigations. With Medical council of India opening the Pandora box of laboratory services authorizing only the professionals registered with MCI alone can sign the laboratory reports it just means not signature , blindly signing will get one into trouble without knowing the content of the test results and impact on the survival and death of patients, Never to forget the laboratory results are many times not constant and liable for many variations as per ISO accreditation standards (ISO 15189:2012) the laboratory is responsible for its reports. When there is a query, complaint or a nonconformity, the laboratory management should conduct a detailed analysis to identify the root cause of error and bring in the necessary corrective actions. It certainly means laboratories to be handled by qualified post graduates with experience and much needed clinical interaction, “In case the error was identified based on customer complaint, the complainant should be informed about the outcome of the investigation. Though the ISO standard applies to the laboratories that go for accreditation, the contents reflect general requirements for any medical diagnostic laboratory
Legal options available for patients - the patient can, under the circumstances, write to the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare, and the relevant authorities there will investigate the matter and take actions as they see fit. The patient can also write to Karnataka Medical Council or Medical Council of India, and request action against the pathologist for violating Indian Medical Council (Professional conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, chapter 7.7 of which states:
Signing makes the person responsible for the test - Any registered practitioner who is shown to have signed or given under his name and authority any such certificate, notification, report or document of a similar character which is untrue, misleading or improper, is liable to have his name deleted from the Register.”
It all just means blind signing by Medically qualified people can get into legal implications
KNOW THE LAW BEFORE YOU SIGN
Ref How to deal with faulty test reports from medical labs citizen matters Bengaluru Pavan Kulkarni Feb 25, 2015
Dr.T.V.Rao MD Professor of Microbiology

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