RECENTLY, I went to a collection point of the laboratory of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) with my five-year-old daughter to get her urine culture test done as advised by our family physician. The report showed an infection that required the initiation of third-generation antibiotics. The doctor, on the basis of physical symptoms, doubted the authenticity of the report and recommended repeating the test from some other laboratory.

Surprisingly, the fresh report negated the conclusion of the first report. Luckily, I belong to a middle-class family and could afford to repeat the test from another laboratory. What about those who cannot afford to do so, and rely on the report of state-run LUMHS laboratory?

The provincial health authorities must take notice of the negligence and poor quality of state-run laboratories because wrong or fake reports may mislead the doctors into writing wrong prescriptions.

Naseer Ahmed Soomro
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024