MULTAN, Dec 28: The diagnostic work at the Nishtar Teaching Hospital’s Pathology department will stop soon if a clear cut policy regarding smooth supply of various items is not framed.

This was stated in the report of the department forwarded to the college and hospital administration on Thursday.

The report said the department had been facing problems in conducting blood tests due to irregular supply of essential equipment including slides, cover slips and Aletowe Formalein.

When contacted, department head Dr Ikram Hashmi said the shortage of requisite items was the result of confusion between the hospital and college administration regarding their duties. The items were used both for the blood tests and for teaching purposes, he said.

He said the Nishtar Hospital chief executive and the medical college’s principal had claimed that they were unable to make arrangements for the provision of the equipment because of financial restraints.

Dr Hashmi said 80 per cent diagnosis had been carried out in the Pathology department, adding the blood tests of 25 patients who feared to be suffering from cancer was conducted daily.

Nishtar Hospital Chief Executive Brig Dr Saeed (retired) told this correspondent that they had been facing financial constraints because they carried out free of cost tests.

To ease the financial situation, he said the hospital administration was planning to charge five per cent expenditures from the patients they paid to private laboratories for tests.

College and hospital laboratories would soon be merged and upgraded with the allocation of Rs4 million, he added.

Cash looted: Four robbers allegedly looted Rs0.4 million in cash from a salesman of a medicines company here on Friday.

Sulman was coming from Dera Ghazi Khan when armed robbers intercepted his van on the Bahawalpur Road near Tariq Petroleum Service, some 10 kilometres from here. They escaped after snatching the cash from him.

When contacted, Mumtazabad SHO Mahar Sajjad said that he was still investigating the authenticity of the incident.