Covid-19 testing targets 'absurd', can't force people to take tests: Bengaluru private hospitals

Private hospitals are appalled at a government order that seeks to penalise them if they do Covid testing late and reward them when they do it early.

The penalty-cum-incentive order issued on Thursday has confused hospitals. They say they can only test patients who come for treatment on their own. They also say they cannot willfully delay test results.

The government has promised to give private labs an incentive of 10% of the sample testing cost (Rs 2,000) if they test early (within 24 hours) through the RT-PCR method. Late testing (beyond 48 hours) will lead to a penalty of 10%.

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Out of the 43 Covid testing centres in Bengaluru, 23 are those where the percentage of 'testing target met' ranges from a dismal 4.7% to 97.6%, according to the data submitted by the BBMP for review to the chief secretary on September 1.

Sagar Hospital, Jayanagar, for example, meets only 18.8% of its daily testing capacity of 300 on average, according to the BBMP data.

"We don't understand the logic behind setting targets for hospitals as we can only test patients who approach us. We cannot force people to get tested in order to raise testing numbers," Dr (Major) Mahendra Kumar, Medical Director, Sagar Hospitals, told DH.

Secondly, Dr Kumar said, there are more than 25 Covid testing facilities in Jayanagar, including Apollo, Aster and Fortis, that are within a two-km radius. With so many hospitals in the vicinity, not all patients in the area will go to Sagar. "In such a scenario, when we are paid by the patient for the test, we have no reason to take beyond 15-16 hours to give the result," he explained.

Not enough volume

Dr B N Srinath, Managing Trustee, Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, said the hospital was doing 55-60 tests per day out of the daily capacity of 100. The hospital has invested nearly Rs 83 lakh in the machine and the automated testing kits. Including the cost of the kit, running one batch of 96 samples costs Rs 1,200 each.

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"This (the government order) is not a good step at all. Leave the hospitals to run the show. If we test only 55 or 60 samples, the other 40 or 45 kits go wasted, which means we'll be losing money. Forget making profit, we can't even break even. That is why we are doing the manual extraction of samples. While one cycle of RTPCR testing takes eight hours, we cannot do it continuously," Dr Srinath said.

He continued: "We run the samples in batches and it takes five hours to manually collect 30-40 samples. If the samples are 100 or more, it takes a mere three-and-a-half hours."

Govt labs not happy either

The government has also vowed disciplinary action against the staff of its own labs if 25% of the sample load is kept pending beyond a week.

The nodal officer for testing at the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute’s Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, who did not want to be named, said that the government order was not fair because other factors were also at play. The lab tests more than 1,000 samples every day.

“Sometimes, the internet is down or the data entry operator would not have arrived. Sometimes, the samples would not have arrived properly or the line listing would be absent. The availability of kits/consumables can also be an issue,” the nodal officer said.