07 January 2005	Friday	25 Ziqa'ad 1425

PESHAWAR, Jan 6: Taking notice of the wrong results of patients' tests by clinical laboratories in the city, the standing committee of the NWFP Assembly on health has asked the health regulatory authority (HRA) to take effective measure to end the menace.

The committee's meeting, held here on Thursday under its chairman Dr Mohammad Saleem Khan, also expressed concern over the patients' plight in city hospitals and asked the authorities concerned to provide free medical treatment to the chronically-ill patients in casualty departments of the city hospitals.

It said the government had already allocated Rs50 million to the four teaching hospitals of the province to give free medicines to such patients at the emergency wards.

Mr Khan said he had personally noted that hospitals' employees were misusing drugs meant for seriously-ill patients. The meeting was of the view that the health regulatory authority should play an active role to do away with the fake laboratories and clinics and provide relief to patients.

On the occasion, Secretary Health Abdul Samad Khan assured the committee that action would be taken against bogus laboratories and clinics and an investigation conducted into the alleged misappropriation of drugs by the hospitals' staff in casualty wards.