Furnishing three back-to-back wrong HIV reports this December, private diagnostic lab Medall Scans and Labs Ranchi Pvt Ltd, operating out of RIMS premises since August 2015, has finally come under the scanner of National Health Mission in Jharkhand.

Dr Praveen Chandra, director-in-chief, state health services, told The Telegraph that he directed his officials to probe into recent errors by speaking to patients, doctors and Medall representatives and furnish a comprehensive report at earliest.

"We can't allow this to go on," Dr Chandra said, referring to errors made by the private lab, a part of a chain of diagnostic centres based mostly in Chennai and Bangalore, currently running on PPP mode in Ranchi with the state health department.

Ironically, the state had signed an MoU with Medall earlier this May with the aim to upgrade quality healthcare facilities.

"A patient's treatment is based on diagnostic reports. It's not about minor differences in reference values. When the whole report is different (read wrong), we definitely need to look into it. Medall also needs mandatory registration under Clinical Establishment Act."

On Thursday, a 40-year-old man was called HIV-negative by Medall, whereas Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) run by Jharkhand State AIDS Control Society (JSACS) on RIMS premises found him HIV positive.

Last week, the opposite error happened. A 45-year-old woman from Latehar was reported HIV-positive by Medall, but two conclusive tests done by ICTC and a private diagnostic centre confirmed her to be HIV negative.

Around 10 days ago, another 50-year-old woman from Ranchi, who is HIV-positive, was shown to be HIV negative by Medall.

On Thursday, when RIMS deputy superintendent Dr Basundhara Kumari called Medall officials to her chamber and asked them to clarify what was going on, they said their report was right. They further said it was written in fine lines to get confirmatory tests. "I am not satisfied with the response," the senior doctor fumes.

Senior doctors at RIMS said that by HIV test they mean ELISA and Western Blot Test, not the rapid card test that Medall allegedly conducts.

Medall, which made its debut in August, has not just been going wrong in the HIV. Less well documented, but no less potentially fatal, are its errors in other cases. "Symptomatically, I thought a patient of mine suffered from typhoid. But, the Medall report showed she had jaundice. I advised my patient to go for another test from either RIMS or a private lab. Finally, the correct report confirmed typhoid and I treated her for typhoid," said a senior doctor of RIMS medicine department.

But, when The Telegraph contacted Medall deputy general manager operations Baskar S., he said: "We do not want to get into an argument of who is correct and who is not. All I know is our report is correct. We cannot say anything beyond that."

But, this response would not satisfy Dr Chandra and other doctors. "Lab reports are linked with people's lives. Reports must be correct and nothing in-between," Dr Chandra said.

What should be the penalty for a faulty medical report? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com