Chandigarh, Dec 29 (IANS) The Punjab government Wednesday barred state medical institutes and government colleges from referring patients to private laboratories and diagnostic centres which fleece them.
Medical Education and Research Minister Tikshan Sud said instructions have been issued barring medical institutes and government colleges from referring patients to private labs and diagnostic centres.
In a meeting held here Wednesday, Sud took exception to reports that certain medical colleges were referring patients to ‘favourite laboratories and diagnostic centres’ which were fleecing the patients.
Sud said that all medical tests and other investigations of the patients have to be done by the laboratories of the government medical institutes and any doctor found referring patients to private labs would have to face the music.
The minister said that if any patient is referred to an outside lab, then the principal of the medical institute or college would be held responsible.
‘In such cases, the principal will be liable to serious departmental action, including suspension,’ Sud said.
He directed officers to get the faulty machinery in hospitals and medical institutes replaced at the earliest.
He said latest equipments for conducting tests on patients would be installed in all medical colleges of the state in 2011.
