Maharashtra to establish state-of-art integrated labs in each district under PM-ABHIM

These labs will merge all diagnostic services like haematology, clinical biochemistry and clinical pathology under a single roof to identify and detect diseases early so as to manage any outbreak similar to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the first phase in Maharashtra, IPHLs will be set up in 11 districts — Nanded, Nashik, Amravati, Ratnagiri, Ahmednagar, Pune, Aurangabad, Beed, Buldhana, Bhandara and Gadchiroli. For this, a capital cost of Rs 13.75 crore has been sanctioned considering a budget of Rs 1.25 crore per unit.

Under instructions of the Centre, the public health department is setting up district IPHL units to serve as the apex of a network to link labs with block, state and regional public health and veterinary labs to support multi-sectoral collaboration for clinical management and public health surveillance. This will make each region self-sufficient in dealing with any mass-outbreak of an infection.

“This is a project that hasn’t been implemented earlier. We have already completed the inspection of the existing laboratories where we are making space to merge all units together as per the guidelines of the Centre,” said Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, Maharashtra on Friday. “It will provide comprehensive services, including infectious disease diagnostics and other diagnostic services like haematology, clinical chemistry, microbiology and pathology, all combined under one laboratory service,” he added.

Each district has their own laboratory but they function under various units across the regions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was observed that limited laboratory capacity led to a delay in diagnosis, which further delayed the initiation of appropriate treatment and the necessary public health action to control the spread of disease as per the state health department.

“So, we believe that the IPHLs will play a key role in early detection of disease, surveillance, monitoring of therapy as well as supportive laboratory parameters during any outbreak in the future,” said Dr Awate, who is leading the project in Maharashtra. “Starting with these eleven districts, we will establish it in all 36 districts,” he added.

The IPHL will establish multi-level linkages from blocks to districts, to state and finally to zonal/regional and national level laboratories for providing a comprehensive set of laboratory services that can also aid in timely prediction of outbreak and supporting policy decisions.

“We are also working to set up facilities at the block-level also,” he added.

“An integrated model for the laboratory is crucial to increase efficiency, avoid duplication of laboratory resources, improve patient services, channel resources for development of capacity for multi-disease testing and to equip the laboratory in terms of better preparedness and response to emerging disease threats,” said an official from the National Rural Health Mission.