HC notice to TN govt on PIL over scan centres

The Madras High Court today issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government on a PIL charging that improper scanning and diagnosis in many private scan centres has led to death of some people all over the state.
Petitioner C Anand Raj had moved the Madurai bench of the court, seeking a direction to health department officials to visit such centres and take action to ensure they are run as per rules of Medical Council of India with qualified persons.
Justice S Tamilvanan and Justices V S Ravi ordered notice to the Principal Secretary, Health, Director of Medical and Rural Health Service and Joint Director, Madurai, to file their response in two weeks.

Raj submitted that there are no qualified sonologists in these centres, where many pregnant women go to scan foetus development to find out if there are congenital defects.
He said MCI had prescribed qualifications to conduct scans and file reports. Only right detection would help in right treatment of ailments and wrong ones would lead to complications, he said.
Raj referred to an advertisement of a private scan centre, which said those who do not have an MBBS degree could take four months of training and be a sonologist. This was in utter violation of MCI norms, he said.

Besides the term sonologist had been defined in pre conception and Prenatal Diagonstic Techniques Act, as per which a person should have requisite qualifications prescribed.

People had died due to improper scan report submitted by unquqlified persons, he said.
Raj said he had also sent representation to the Government to inspect these centres and find out if they have qualified persons.