ICMR publishes India’s first draft National Essential
Diagnostics List
The Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is steering the process of compilation
of National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) for the country.
The draft NEDL, which has been collated with
contributions from all relevant stakeholders is now available for comments on
ICMR website at https://www.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/whats_new/Draft_NEDL.pdf
The NEDL builds upon the Free Diagnostics Service Initiative and other
diagnostics initiatives of Health ministry (Indian Public Health Standards,
Health and Wellness Centers etc.) to provide an expanded basket of tests at
different levels of the public health system.
EDL has been developed for all levels of health care –
village level, Sub-center/Heath & Wellness Centers, Primary Health Center
(PHC), Community Health Center (CHC), Sub District Hospital (SDH) and District
Hospital (DH).
Tests for each level of care have been proposed
based on the utility and requirement of tests at that
level, infrastructure, training available or proposed to be made
available through other parallel initiatives of Government of India.
NEDL consists of 130 general lab tests required for
routine patient care and for diagnosis of a wide array of both communicable and
non-communicable diseases.
The 26 disease-specific tests are for diagnosis of
specific diseases like Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, endemic diseases like
Filariasis, Scrub typhus, Japanese Encephalitis and diagnostic tests for TB,
HIV and Hepatitis among others.
Tests in the list have been prepared with the description
of test category (e.g., Hematology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathology and
Serology), specimen type for each test and the product/equipment on which
the test is best conducted at the respective level of health care.
An option of following a ‘hub and spoke model’ has been
also suggested for implementing the EDL for certain tests. This will ensure
availability of the required number of tests at different levels of facilities
in a cost-efficient way.
Availability of comprehensive diagnostic services at all
levels will improve patient care and minimise referral of patients because of
unavailability of tests.
The list has been put up on ICMR website and comments are
solicited from the wider audience by 31st January, 2019.
Read our earlier published story on this at http://blogs.kkaggarwal.com/2018/08/who-list-of-essential-diagnostic-tests-in-primary-healthcare/
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma
Shri Awardee
President Elect Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and
Oceania (CMAAO)
Group
Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President
Heart Care Foundation of India
Immediate Past National President IMA
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