Sounds unbelievable but is a true incident. After Uluberia in Howrah, yet another case of how a private diagnostic laboratory in Tamluk, East Midnapore district, used to run brisk business issuing pathological test reports to patients using false signatures of a Delhi-based pathologist, who has no connection with the lab.

The laboratory that has been continuing the illegal practice for more than three years since 2019, has closed down the unit at Daharpur in Tamluk after the pathologist contacted its owner recently and threatened to take necessary administrative action for using her name with false signature in test reports.

The pathologist, who is now doing a post-doctoral course in a National Institute of Medical Science in Delhi, somehow came to know that the laboratory has been doing business using her name along with false signatures in test reports keeping her completely in the dark. She has no official agreement with the laboratory owner for carrying her name in the test reports.

“We have closed down all operations in our laboratory more than a couple of weeks ago soon after the pathologist madam called me up and threatened to take action against us for using her name and signature in the test reports. We have also sold all medical equipment required for pathological tests,” Mr Prashanta Mishra, owner of the laboratory in Tamluk told The Statesman.

“We were totally misguided by a local agent who had arranged a signature along with a consent letter of the pathologist madam for three years’ agreement with us. With a telephone call from her we came to know that her signature was false,” he added.

On May 4, The Statesman had carried a report on how a private diagnostic laboratory on Hospital Gate in Uluberia of Howrah used to issue pathological test reports to hundreds of patients signed by a ‘dead doctor’ raising serious questions on the authenticity and validity of the tests conducted at the lab.

A private diagnostic laboratory at the Hospital Gate in Uluberia of Howrah issues pathological test reports to hundreds of patients signed by a ‘dead doctor’ raising serious questions on the authenticity and validity of the tests conducted at the lab.

Reports on different pathological and serological tests at the Uluberia laboratory showed these were signed by Dr Ajoy Kumar Das (MBBS, MD in biochemistry) as pathologist/pathology-in-charge. But Dr Das, retired physician of a Delhi-based hospital, died of cancer during June in 2020.

West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) headed by Justice Asim Banerjee took prompt action directing Howrah district health administration to close down the laboratory after holding virtual hearings with the lab owner and chief medical officer of health (CMOH) in the district.