The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the private diagnostic laboratories to intimate the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Limited (KMSCL) about the requirements of their monthly/quarterly RT-PCR test materials so that they can be supplied to them for conducting tests at the price fixed by the State government.
Justice P.R. Ravi passed the directive on a petition filed by lab owners challenging the reduction in prices by the government for RT-PCR tests.
Question to KMSCL
The court had last time asked the medical services corporation whether it could supply the test materials at a reasonable rate so that the cost fixed by the government would be viable for the laboratories.
When the petition came up for hearing, M. Ajay, counsel for the corporation, said it needed to be informed of the requirements, such as the quantity, in advance.
The government in a statement said that the testing materials would be made available only till COVID-19 subsided. The KMSCL had laid out a roadmap for the implementation of the High Court directive. In fact, the monthly/quarterly requirement of the test materials needed to be intimated to the corporation in advance so that it could procure and supply them in time.
