New Delhi: You often get flyers of neighbourhood path labs nestled between pages of newspapers. Beware of them for they could be shady labs and their reports might endanger your life. More than half of path labs seem to making a kill by giving cuts to doctors. A survey report among many things has found that 34 % of people got wrong reports.
Recently, an audio clip of a doctor talking to a path lab representative went viral on social media, where they were talking about the commission on prescribed tests and generating false reports. This survey will only confirm the worst fears of patients of the country.
The result of survey says ‘Sink tests’ have become quite common nowadays where a lab takes your sample only to throw it in a sink and generate a false report, causing much distress among the patients.
A pan India survey has warned about such substandard labs and has exposed the unholy nexus between doctors and such path labs in India. The stats suggest the widespread rot in pathology lab industry. These unscrupulous path labs mushrooming all over India thrive because of the cut they offer to doctors.
According to survey, 35% citizens did not trust the Pathology Lab they used and wanted the Government to cancel licenses if they were found incentivising Doctors. 66% said their doctor has suggested a specific pathology lab for getting medical tests done. 34% of people surveyed received wrong pathology reports.
LocalCircles, India’s leading Community Social Media platform, has come out with a very damning reports about state of affairs in pathology lab industry. Over 48,000 responses were received from over 22,000 unique citizens located in 215 districts of India. Approximately 37% of the respondents were women while 63% were men. 41% of the participants were from Metro/Tier 1 cities, 37% from Tier 2 cities and 22% were from Tier 3 and rural locations.
The first question asked citizens how much they trust the pathology lab that they generally use for getting medical tests done. Only 17% said they fully trust them while 48% said they had a high level of trust in them but they still stay vigilant. 28% said they had a low level of trust and therefore they stay vigilant. 7% said they had very low or no trust in them.
The next question asked if the doctors they have visited for themselves of their family over the last one year tended to suggest that they use a specific pathology lab for getting medical tests done. 33% said most of the doctors did it while 33% said some of them did it. Only 29% said none of the doctors indulged in this behaviour.
Consumers have also reported that their doctors force them to get the tests done from a specific lab in their area saying it is better than others or that they would send reports directly to them.
When asked how many cases they had in the last 3 years where the pathology reports for them of their family member was wrong. 34% said it had never happened with them while 30% said it had happened up to 3 times. 4% said it had happened with them more than 3 times. 32% were unsure about it.
Many consumers had reported that their doctor asks them to get general tests like blood count, urine test, LFT, KFT etc. done quite often, even if there might not have been a need for it.
Next question asked how many times in the last 3 years did they feel that their doctor ordered more tests than were actually necessary. 35% said never, 31% said 1-3 times, 19% said more than 3 times and 15% said they were unsure.
