No Scanned Copies: All Diagnostic reports have to carry Full signatures with date and seal, says WB govt

West Bengal:  In a move to stop the menace of fraud and unauthorised use of signatures of various specialists on diagnostic reports, the West Bengal Government recently issued an order mandating that doctors, technicians or in general any signee of any investigation reports shall have to put their full signature with date and official seal.

Medical Dialogues has repeatedly reported about the major issues of verification when it comes to investigation reports coming out of various types of clinical establishments. Even the most reputed of establishments including diagnostic centres frequently make use of digitally scanned signatures of doctors and technicians on the report. However, these scanned signatures often become a matter of misuse as many diagnostic centres just use these scanned signatures on their reports, without getting reports duly verified by doctors. It is also been alleged that specialist doctors including pathologists and microbiologists often lend their scanned signatures to illegal pathology labs, contributing to the quackery menace and endangering patient safety.

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However, coming with a solution to a number of these allegations, the West Bengal Health Department has come up with a notice stating that no facsimile signatures would b entertained on any investigation reports coming out of clinical establishments

" It is hereby informed to all concerned that due to lack of legal sanctity and to prevent fraud and unauthorised use, the investigation reports issued by Clinical Establishments shall not henceforth bear the Facsimile signature of the author of the said report. The author of the report shall put his full signature with date and official seal."

Since the order talks about the blanket investigation reports, the order will be applicable to all diagnostic investigation reports including laboratory reports, ultrasound reports, CT reports etc

Doctors were seen welcoming the move but showed their inhibitions on the lack of clarity on the use of digital signatures.

Speaking to Medical Dialogues team, Dr Sukanta Chakraborty, a practising pathologist in Kolkata and an office-bearer with the Calcutta Association of Practicing Pathologists said, " The order while banning facsimile signature is not clear on the use of digital signatures. See digital signatures that are most commonly used for IT transactions, are login and password protected systems and cannot be easily misused as scanned signatures. We will ask the government to issue a clarification on this regard. Having said that we welcome any order, that prevents misuse of the signatures of doctors and stops the menace of quackery."

Dr Rohit Jain, Secretary Practicing Pathologists Society, Rajasthan added " It's a welcome move by WB government. Scanned signatures ( not digital signatures)  are being used at multiple places in absentia by a single person which is not permissible as per law. A single person cannot be present at multiple labs at the same time. The need of the hour is mandatory to use of geotagged signatures akin to  Digital signature certificate (DSC signatures) by to sign the investigation/ lab reports to prevent QUACKERY and fraud."