Question & AnswerQ&A (Republic Act No. 4688)
The main purpose of Republic Act No. 4688 is to regulate the operation and maintenance of clinical laboratories, require their registration with the Department of Health, impose penalties for violations, and other related purposes.
Any person, firm, or corporation operating and maintaining a clinical laboratory where body fluids, tissues, secretions, excretions and radioactivity from beings or animals are analyzed must register and secure an annual license from the Secretary of Health.
No. Government hospital laboratories performing routine or minimum laboratory examinations are exempted if their services are extensions of government regional or central laboratories.
Only a licensed physician who is duly qualified in laboratory medicine and authorized by the Secretary of Health may be professionally in-charge of a registered clinical laboratory.
No. The authorization granted by the Secretary of Health to a physician to be in-charge of a clinical laboratory must be renewed annually.
No. No license to operate a clinical laboratory shall be granted or renewed unless the laboratory is under the administration, direction, and supervision of an authorized physician as required by the law.
The Secretary of Health, through the Bureau of Research and Laboratories, is charged with enforcing the provisions of the Act.
Violators may be punished with imprisonment of not less than one month but not more than one year, or a fine ranging from one thousand pesos to five thousand pesos, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
No. If any section or part of the Act is declared invalid by a court, it shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the rest of the Act.
The Act took effect upon its approval on June 18, 1966.