Recently, some citizens have denounced the increase in the prices of medical analyzes by a number of analysis laboratories. Is this an isolated case or a generality? The owners of the laboratories insisted on delivering their version of the facts.
The owners of medical laboratories revealed, on Wednesday at a press conference held in Casablanca, that medical analyses, in particular those related to Covid-19, have not experienced any increase on their part, contrary to what circulated after the surge in active Covid-19 cases and the observed strong demand for testing, which is also linked to the resumption of overseas travel.
The biologists thus recalled that the analysis laboratories were the subject of a large information campaign “unfoundedduring the pandemic and which said that laboratories increased the prices of analyzes during this period, in particular those related to the detection of Covid-19.
The president of the Union of Biologists, Othmane Touzani, explained during this conference that medical analyzes are subject to Law 12.01 relating to private laboratories for medical biology analyses, which defines the specifications for analyses.
In his speech, Touzani pointed out that medical laboratories “do not set prices on their own”, noting that the citizen can consult the prices on the website of the Ministry of Health and the General Secretariat of the Government, which publish the prices of the various analyzes.
According to Touzani, the prices of medical analyzes “cannot be increased, as they are legally determined“, before launching that it is about “medical professions and not commercial professions”.
Furthermore, the President of the Syndicate of Biologists did not rule on the violation of the aforementioned law and the increase in prices by certain professionals, since he admitted that certain laboratories could commit abuses, calling in this sense to “solve the problem“.
“Unfounded information on health laboratories must be removed as well as confusion, while providing solutions that meet the aspirations of citizens“, he underlined.
Thus, the professionals of the sector confirmed during this conference their total implication in the workshops of social protection, before specifying that it was necessary all the same to accelerate the modification of the laws regulating the sector, to widen the catalog of medical analyses, to encourage the training of paramedical executives working in the field and the development of the national biomedical industry which would reduce the link with the fluctuations of foreign markets.
They also noted that medical laboratories play a central role in the patient’s care pathway, performing examinations on clinical specimens with the aim of diagnosing, treating and preventing disease.
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