Who should sign Lab reports?

 WHAT MCI SAYS?

 the MCI Board of Governors,  recently issued an order. (april 2019)

 The order stated ---

Any person who is a Registered Medical Practitioner, having the requisite Postgraduate Medical Qualification in Pathology,Microbiology, Biochemistry, may sign / counter sign Laboratory Reports. However, it has to be borne in mind that, the Registered Medical Practitioner shall sign / counter sign the Laboratory Reports in their respective field of specialization / subject. That is to say that a Pathologist shall sign / countersign a Pathological Report, a Microbiologist shall sign / countersign a Microbiological Report and a Biochemist shall sign / countersign a Biochemical Report, so on and so forth.

what Moh says?

As per The amendment to the Clinical Establishment Rules, 2012 that was notified by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, on 21.05.18, proclaims --

This amendment clearly lists the type of laboratories, their scope of services and the qualifications of the authorized signatories for each type of laboratory. Further, it clearly  distinguishes between an "authorized signatory" who is essentially responsible for the authenticity of the laboratory test report and the essential qualifications of the individuals where-ever interpretation of the lab results or opinion thereon are required. With reference to the latter, for a basic composite type of laboratory it has to be a registered medical practitioner with an MBBS qualification; for medium and advanced type of laboratories the authorized signatory should have Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Diplomate of National Board (DNB) in Pathology or Biochemistry or Medical Microbiology or Laboratory Medicine or Diploma in Clinical Pathology or Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) with Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in any of the subjects above.