KARACHI, May 9: Lack of laboratory test facility in Karachi South’s oldest hospital — Lyari Maternity Home — is causing multiple problems for patients.

According to area residents, the hospital has been a victim of neglect for years as it is without a modern lab, and blood test and ultra sound facilities are not available.

Patients are referred to private labs, and patients undergo severe mental torture in case of any emergency.

In such cases, the patients are either referred to Sobhraj or Civil hospital because of non-availability of proper medical equipment or operation theatre facility.

Situated on Mewa Shah Road, the hospital was established much before the creation of Pakistan and is providing health-care services to the poor patients of the locality.

In the 90s, some improvement was witnessed in the hospital when renovation and construction work on an operation theatre section was carried out on a directive of a former prime minister.

Although latest surgical equipment worth millions of rupees was purchased, the operation theatre section was not made operational on the pretext of non-availability of technical staff.

After the introduction of the new local bodies system, the administrative control of all the hospitals and maternity homes previously run by the defunct DMC-S in the district had been handed over to the City Government but the City Government has not taken any step so far to make the operation theatre section fully functional. Moreover, the fate of costly equipment meant for the operation theatre section of the hospital could not be known.