Private labs to be registered countrywide

by Carol Aloysius

All private laboratories will soon have to be registered with the Health Ministry prior to being permitted to operate. “At present there are several unregistered private laboratories over which the Health Ministry has no control. No one knows their exact figures because they are operating without a licence.

Registration of these laboratories will be included in the wide ranging reforms in the proposed amendments to the Private Medical Institutions Act now under consideration,” media Health spokesman W.A.D. Wanninayake told the Sunday Observer.

Commenting on the proposed amendments to the existing Act, he said that the main aim of the Health Ministry was to improve the quality of service offered by these private health facilities. There are around 300 private medical institutions in the country.