February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has formally lodged a complaint with the health ministry against a private pathology lab for producing an erroneous diagnosis report.

A hospital source told Dawn that the Pims administration through a letter had asked the health ministry to take up the issue with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

The administration also urged the ministry to take strict action against doctors and laboratory assistants responsible for wrong diagnosis as currently no law exists to take remedial measures against a private hospital or laboratory.

The source said, in the absence of such law, only the PMDC could direct its ethics committee to consider the issue and take relevant action.

An initiative was taken by the health ministry to draft a law to regulate private hospitals and laboratories about 18 months ago, but the move later fell victim to bureaucratic red tape, the source added.

The source said attention of the health ministry had been drawn to make the laboratory responsible and avoid such irresponsible diagnosis in the future.

Wrong diagnosis created panic in the hospital as the lab report stated that Abdul Wahid, who later died due to infections, contracted “plague”, the most deadliest contagious disease.

Subsequently the hospital management isolated the ward after shifting other patients admitted in Medical Ward II.

The public health department of National Institute of Health (NIH) also conducted a thorough investigation and pronounced that the patient was not suffering from plague.

Later the hospital management again carried out a diagnostic test of the patient from a different lab, where it was discovered that he was suffering from “pseudomonas” bacteria, usually developed among patients who underwent a major surgery.