Only MBBS can sign lab reports: MCI

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, July 2

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has ruled that only MBBS doctors registered with it or with the medical councils of various states are eligible to sign diagnostic reports.

The MCI has written to the Director, National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) (Tribune has a copy) stating that professional medical lab technicians or PhD scholars in various science disciplines are not authorised to sign or countersign medical test reports of laboratories.

The NABL had sought a clarification from the MCI whether persons with MSc or PhD degrees were allowed to sign reports. It had also asked whether PhD holders in medical microbiology, medical biochemistry, life science, applied biology, cytogenetics and biotechnology could be permitted if they were co-authorised with (assisting) a person registered with the MCI or state councils.

The MCI stated in its communication that the Ethics Committee considered the matter at its several meetings and last in February this year. The decision was taken at the Executive Committee of the apex medical education and regulatory body in New Delhi on June 16.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also been apprised of the decision.

Sources in the medical fraternity term it as a landmark decision and a paradigm shift in the policy. They say many corporate hospitals and scores of private diagnostic laboratories in the country have MSc postgraduates interpreting and signing laboratory test reports.

However, the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules make it mandatory that all diagnostic laboratories should have doctors (registered with the MCI or state medical council) to do the task, the sources say.

The National MSc Medical Teachers’ Association has been opposing the rules and written to all authorities concerned, including the Union Health Minister, to reconsider the rules, but in vain.

NABL seeks clarification

• The MCI has written to the Director, National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories , stating professional medical lab technicians or PhD scholars in various science disciplines are not authorised to sign or countersign medical test reports of laboratories
• The NABL had sought a clarification from the MCI whether persons with MSc or PhD degrees were allowed to sign reports