NABL Launches MELT Labs Programme for Last-Mile Healthcare

The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) has initiated the Medical Entry Level Testing (MELT) Labs Programme to propagate quality practices in medical testing laboratories throughout India.

This project, which is aimed at changing the behavior of those laboratories which do the most basic diagnostics, intends to facilitate the availability of reliable and trustworthy medical care, especially for villagers and small-town residents.

This step is voluntary, and it functions as an independent quality insurance mechanism, thus, it is the replacement for the previous entry-level frame of reference used by NABL. Unlike the system that is accredited under the APAC & ILAC MRA, the MELT Labs program focuses more on the PT performance of a laboratory as the criteria for granting recognition.

The recognition fee is Rs. 15,000 for three years, excluding GST, with surveillance charges applied based on actual costs via the NABL portal. The programme does not apply to laboratories in medical colleges, corporate legal entities, or hospitals with 50 or more beds.

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The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) aims through this measure to reduce the distance between healthcare providers and the people who do not have access to proper health care by instilling in the laboratories the practice of using quality standards thus ensuring the correct and reliable diagnosis, which is very important at the stage of early disease detection, monitoring, and treatment.