Patients being asked to personally deliver their specimen samples

Chief Government Pathologist, Dr Maxwell Hove says private medical practitioners are fuelling the dehumanising practice whereby patients are being asked to personally deliver their specimen samples to laboratories for testing, as they are making parallel arrangements with private laboratories.

More than a month after a team was set up by government to investigate why both public and private hospitals are resorting to the disgraceful practice of giving patients their specimen to take to private laboratories, the probe results are yet to be released.

In the meantime, the practice has continued unabated and patients are still carrying their specimen ranging from urine, stool, blood or even body tissue to personally deliver them to laboratories.

Dr Hove says there are indications that private medical practitioners are fuelling the ill practice by making arrangements with private laboratories in a bid to create business for them.

"What is happening is totally unacceptable. Some specimen can actually endanger anyone who comes into contact with them. Private doctors make arrangements with private laboratories, so they tell patients to take the specimen to private labs so as to create business for the private labs," said Dr Hove.

Dr Hove says there is also a misconception by many people that private laboratories offer better services and produce more reliable information yet the country's major referral centre, Parirenyatwa Central Hospital boasts of modern equipment and can compete with any lab in the country.

"There are some tests that cannot be conducted anywhere else in the country except at Parirenyatwa Hospital, but you find people who think private is better than public," Dr Hove added.

Some specimen samples, once collected, are supposed to be taken to the laboratory immediately or refrigerated.

In the absence of a properly equipped laboratory, hospitals are supposed to engage service providers who collect specimen samples to laboratories, and the specimen should be transported to the laboratory by courier services companies without delay to ensure optimal results.

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