NABL working towards calibration of medical equipments

The National Accreditation Board For Laboratories (NABL) is working towards calibration of medical equipments in the country to bring in performance accuracy.

The NABL is a national accreditation body for testing and calibration of laboratories.

"Caliberation of medical equipment is the only way to retain medical equipment's, including thermometers, blood pressure measuring devices and MRI and scanners, to minimise risks or uncertainty currently being faced by patients due to variance in results," said Anil Relia, CEO of NABL.

He was speaking at 2nd Congress of Indian Laboratories organised here today.

The accuracy provided by such medical equipment was crucial to the overall output, with respect to both quality and profitability. Regular calibration was required to receive necessary certifications and licenses from regulatory authorities, he said.

"At present NABL has accredited about 5,000 laboratories in India" Relia said.

He said that the NABL was also working on providing accreditation to sample collection centres of major laboratories so that they have proper equipment and resources to collect the samples and preserve them and transport them under controlled conditions.

Indian laboratories ,which are considered at par with any in the world, should be given industry status as currently the thousands of labs in the country were being treated as trading companies, N Kalyan, president of Association of Indian Laboratoris (AOIL) said.

"India has lots of potential for testing foreign samples and bringing in foreign exchange. But due to customs and other paper complications, the country is losing a lot of business," said Kalyan said.