‘Need to upgrade diagnostic facilities in health sector’

NEW DELHI - Diagnostic facilities and infrastructure need to be upgraded to meet the growing demands of the public health sector, a diagnostic expert said here Sunday.

“Demand for better facilities in diagnostic care is increasing with times. When we talk of efficient healthcare facilities, it’s very important to consider diagnostic care as a major aspect,” said Poonam S. Das, director of laboratory medicine at Max Super Speciality hospital in Saket.

“We have to make sure that the techniques used in diagnosing a disease gives accurate results, is time-saving, and beneficial for the patient,” Das said at the launch of a “high throughput integrated platform”, an advanced diagnostic equipment installed for the first time in the country.

The equipment, used for parallel tests to be conducted through single tube of collected sample, can process nearly 1,840 tests per hour without any addition to the cost of tests.

“Tertiary care centres are well equipped with diagnostic care facilities, but the mushrooming pathology laboratories are a concern indeed. There has to be a strict standardisation for the services provided by these labs,” Das said, referring to the chaotic situation the capital faced at the time of dengue outbreak last year when there were over 5,000 cases of the vector-borne disease.

The machine is for multipurpose testing on immunology, glucose, blood, and various other diagnostic tests.