Do you check the credentials of pathology laboratories where you give your blood or bodily fluids for clinical testing? If not, then, start doing it, because the registered doctors who are trained and authorised to run pathology labs have been alleging that some 8,000 academically ineligible technicians are running illegal labs across Maharashtra. Registered pathologists say that the technicians in these unauthorised businesses are as dangerous as other quacks in the medical field who pose serious threats to public healthcare.

It has been a testing time for registered pathologists who want illegal laboratories shut. They claim the units are run without analytical expertise of post graduate pathology/microbiology practitioners. Some technicians have been arrested and prosecuted in the past for countersigning test reports despite not having the requisite qualifications and authority. These arrests were reported to the Legislative Assembly in 2018 when the opposition had raised the issue of bogus pathology labs to question the government for allowing quacks to give opinionated diagnostic reports.