PESHAWAR, July 22: The non-availability of echocardiograhy machine at the city’s 1200-bed Khyber Teaching Hospital, has been the cause of problem for the patients suffering from cardiac ailments.

“The patients at the cardiac care unit (CCU) of the Khyber Teaching Hospital, had to be shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex or private hospitals or clinics to carry out echocardiography,” said a cardiologist at the hospital.

The hospital had an echocardiography machine in early eighties, which had been consigned to scrape store and gone into disuse since 1994.

The doctor said that the cost of new machine was Rs3 million only, but all requests to the hospital administration to purchase it, had fallen on deaf ears.