Private hospitals are hopeful that they would be permitted to conduct PCR tests as an outpatient department (OPD) service soon following fruitful discussions with the Ministry of Health (MoH) last week and the Government’s desire to shift to aggressive Covid-19 testing. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Association of Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes (APHNH) Chairman Dr. Lakith Peiris said that he was awaiting a new circular or new guidelines from the Ministry of Health to begin conducting these tests. “We are hopeful for a new circular that lets private hospitals conduct aggressive testing so that we can join the government sector to provide this service for people. Our request to get the permission to conduct this test has become a reality,” added Dr. Peiris. In a circular dated 18 March 2020, the MoH permitted certain private hospitals which are equipped with molecular diagnostic testing facilities, to conduct Covid-19 PCR confirmatory tests, while adhering to stipulated conditions. The circular further stated that tests should be conducted only for patients admitted at the hospital. Following this, several private hospitals conducted the PCR test as an in-ward test. However, the Association said in a press release on 3 April that it was of the view that such a test should be done as an outpatient (OP) service under stringent quality guidelines since the private hospitals are not permitted to admit Covid-19-suspected patients. Peiris said that the discussions with the Government last week had covered the availability of PCR machines, the capacity, and how many tests could be conducted per day, adding that there is absolutely no difference in the quality or effectiveness between the tests conducted at private hospitals and government hospitals. Meanwhile, responding to our article published last Sunday (5) on page one under the headline “Covid-19 PCR testing; pvt. hospitals contradict Health Ministry”, the APHNH stated categorically that it has and will continue to abide by the MoH instructions and directives at all times. Referring to the sentence: “To-date, Covid-19 PCR testing is not being carried out by any of the member hospitals of the Association as an OPD test despite the Ministry of Health(‘s) instructions,” it said: “We note with disappointment that the author has misleadingly used the term ‘despite the MoH instructions’ instead of ‘as per the MoH instruction’. The Association draws your attention to the Ministry of Health circular dated 18 March 2020, wherein the first sentence as quoted in the circular states: ‘PCR test should not be done as a screening test but should be conducted only for the in-ward patients at your hospital,’ which again proves our position that we are abiding by Health Ministry directives.” – Agra Ranasinghe