Types of Health Facilities in the Private Sector: Private Labs

As per India’s Tuberculosis (TB) notification rule, each diagnostic laboratory, including private labs, must report diagnosed TB patient details to the National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) utilizing the digital surveillance system called Nikshay. As of March 2021, 20899 private laboratories are mapped in the Nikshay online portal for notification of diagnosed TB cases.

Private laboratories provide a variety of TB diagnostic services which includes:

1. Smear microscopy
2. Molecular diagnostic test for TB (CBNAAT and TrueNAT)
3. Culture and Drug Susceptibility Testing (C&DST)
4. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology
5. Histopathology

These private laboratories can be stand-alone laboratories, part of private laboratories/ diagnostic chains or part of any multispecialty hospital.

Under NTEP, accreditation of labs by the Central TB Division and calibration of CBNAAT and TrueNAT machines existing in the private sector, is crucial to ensuring optimal quality care.

The program has promoted partnership and certified 16 private sector and 4 NGO laboratories to provide quality-assured TB diagnostic services. Their services are being used by the program under the private public partnership model for providing TB diagnostic services under the NTEP .

Resources

• India TB Report 2021, NTEP, MoHFW, GoI.

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