BENGALURU : Public health experts fear that the Supreme Court’s order directing private diagnostic laboratories to make covid-19 tests free of charge could result in some of them turning away people, rather than providing free services, at a time that India needs to test more to track the spread of the disease.
Private hospitals are reluctant to test free of cost, saying that it will impact their already dwindling revenues. Many private hospitals had to set aside beds for treating covid-19 patients following a government order, even as patients postponed elective surgeries, considered lucrative for hospitals, wary of contracting an infection. “The Supreme Court could instead have directed the Centre to supply consumables to the