Pune: Ruby Hall, Noble Hospital Served Notices Over Dengue Reporting And Testing Discrepancies

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has issued notices to Ruby Hall Clinic and Noble Hospital, Hadapsar, seeking explanations for alleged lapses in dengue reporting and discrepancies between diagnostic test records and entries on the government surveillance portal following the suspected dengue death of a nine-year-old girl.

The civic Health Department issued a notice to Ruby Hall Clinic on Oct 21, asking why the girl's case had not been reported to the PMC's vector-borne disease control department within the prescribed time. The girl died on Oct 18 while undergoing treatment.

PMC Health Department Chief Dr Nina Borade said, "The Union health ministry made dengue a notifiable disease in the country in 2016. So, private practitioners and hospitals must report every case of the mosquito-borne infection to the local bodies so that prevention and containment measures can be initiated immediately to check its spread and prevent an outbreak situation."

The PMC has also sought an explanation from Noble Hospital over discrepancies between dengue screening tests conducted on patients and the test methods recorded on the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP).

According to the civic body, the hospital used rapid tests for dengue screening, whereas the IHIP portal recorded the method as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which is used for confirmatory diagnosis.

PMC Assistant Health Chief Dr Rajesh Dighe said the hospital had been asked to explain the discrepancy within 48 hours.

The notice cited a state government order dated Sept 28, 2016, capping charges for NS1 ELISA and MAC-ELISA tests at ₹600 each and stating that rapid diagnostic tests should not be used for definitive dengue diagnosis.

In its response, Noble Hospital said it had reviewed the records of four patients and corrected the entries on the portal.

"The entry has been corrected and the updated records shared with PMC. Patients were not affected financially, as the hospital charges the same ₹600 for both the card and ELISA tests," said Noble Hospital Chief Executive Officer Dr Sanjay Pathare.

Ruby Hall Clinic said it was reviewing the notice and relevant medical reports.