Patna: Civil surgeon Pramod Kumar Jha on Friday said his office will investigate cases of 57 pathological laboratories in the district to which his predecessor Dr Girendra Shekhar Singh had issued notices.

Sources in the civil surgeon's office said the notice raised the issue of absence of doctors and their failure to furnish related documents. "There has been no follow-up on the action taken against 57 laboratories. Now, we will probe what has been done so far," Jha told The Telegraph. "Patna Pathology in Postal Park, Daas Clinic in Rajendra Nagar and Alka Sewa Sadan in Maner are among others served notices last year. A two-member bench of the Patna High Court on Thursday issued direction for closure of the illegal laboratories (poly clinics, diagnostic centres and nursing homes) within two weeks. We will implement the order strictly," Jha added.

The order was issued against a PIL filed by the Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists four years ago. The appellant had said in court that majority of the diagnostic centres had not fulfilled the criteria and that doctors had not been checking the lab reports leaving it to the technicians. Only the doctors' seals were used.

Sources said apart from notices served to 57 establishments in 2017, the Patna civil surgeon's office had issued showcause notice to a laboratory in Phulwarisharif in Januarythis year for failing to give documents related to doctors and their qualifications.

"Sumitra Diagnostic Centre at Birla Colony Mor in Phulwarisharif had been handed the showcause notice on January 6. It had failed to meet criteria for operation set by the health department, the number of doctors at the path lab, their qualification and registration numbers besides their PAN card and Aadhaar card numbers," said the source.

Another official at the civil surgeon's office said the office was not being able to act tough against illegal diagnostic centres owing to technical reasons. "We cannot clamp down on majority of the diagnostic centres because we have not been told about any specific rule regarding their functioning. The Clinical Establishment Act under which we could take action has been challenged in court. So the matter is sub-judice. We can take action on individual complaints or random investigations," he added.