On Thursday, the Delhi High Court had asked the Centre and the Delhi government to take action against the online health service aggregators who areillegally operating or are violatingthe law and collection of diagnostic samples includingCOVID-19.

A division bench of the High Court, which is presided by Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan said that they have directed the authorities that if any illegal health service aggregator working in violation of law is found thenimmediate action should be taken against them after proper hearing in front of the concerned authorities.

The remarks came as the court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which was seeking a ban on the alleged collection of diagnostic samples by online health service aggregators for COVID-19 infectiontesting, which posed as "medical diagnostic laboratories".

The petition is filed by Rohit Jain, practicing pathologist in Jaipur, through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi. He sought direction to issue guidelines for registration and also for minimum standards for sample collection centers that are operated by online aggregators.

In his petition, Jainwantsa ban on the illegal online health service aggregators, which are not registered in Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act 2010. Many laboratories are operating without any medico legalaccountabilityregarding collection and testing of the patient samples for diagnosis.

Ahuge number of unauthorized pathological laboratories are running under-qualified technicians who are providing completely unscientific diagnostic test reports, which isendangering the lives of common citizens and making them vulnerable.

The petitioner has also alleged that several online health service aggregators are not following the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 for appropriate disposal of bio-medical waste.

The petition further said that the illegal and forged online health service aggregators are not registered with state pollution control board or with any pollution control committee as recommended under the law.

Source: ET Healthworld