o Concerns about J’pura Uni o Three letters sent to Prez.  We need J’pura: Health Ministry By Skandha Gunasekara The Government is to continue to rely on PCR tests conducted outside the Ministry of Health, despite repeated warnings from medical laboratory experts on the lack of accuracy and false results. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Secretary to the Ministry of Health Bhadrani Jayawardena said that the assistance of outside labs was needed to increase the number of daily PCR tests. “There is a need to increase testing and we appreciate the help given by outside laboratories such as the lab at Sri Jayawardenepura University. We haven’t taken any decision to stop testing outside the Ministry of Health,” she said yesterday (9). The College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS) has submitted three letters to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa; the first as far back as 26 April, warning about defective PCR tests, particularly from the lab at Sri Jayawardenepura University. “We sent a letter on 26 April where we urged the President to carry out an investigation into the matter and resolve it. Then we sent a letter again on 3 May that included a 12-point explanation of the problems in the various laboratories, including the one at Sri Jayawardanapura University. The final letter was sent on 6 May,” said CMLS and Sri Lanka Association of Government Medical Laboratory Technologists (SLAGMLT) President Ravi Kumudesh, adding that no official response had been received up to date. Jayawardena said that while the issue was being discussed, no decision had yet been made. “The issue is being deliberated but we don’t know where the fault lies; whether it is how the sample was taken, how it was transported, or the testing method. We first have to ascertain that before coming to a decision.” The letters had raised concerns about sending Covid-19 testing specimens of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases to the University of Sri Jayawardenepura, which was not under the Ministry of Health or its control, while having a Covid-19 testing lab at the institute, which does fall under the Ministry. Kumudesh noted that Health Ministry officials, downplaying the matter, had prompted their organisation to reach out to the President. “It is a callous and dangerous thing to try and hide this issue and we saw that happening at the Health Ministry when we raised these concerns and officials started dismissing the matter,” he said, adding that there was no need to outsource tests as the Ministry of Health laboratories had the capacity to conduct them.