New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- The government is planning a massive overhaul in the functioning of the country's 300,000 diagnostic laboratories to improve their service quality and reliability.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is set to notify rules mandating minimum standards for medical sample collection and transportation to prevent compromise or contamination that could lead to inaccurate test results, according to documents reviewed by Mint and officials familiar with the matter.

The new standards to be notified shortly are aimed at addressing the regulatory gap that has led to compromised sample integrity and result inconsistencies, particularly in the growing home-collection sector. The proposed standards following the ...