HYDERABAD, Feb 16: Two auto analysers, a cell separator and a refrigerator worth millions of rupees have been out of order for several months at the all-important pathological laboratory in the Civil Hospital, adding to poor patients’ agonies and financial burden, according to sources.

The sources said that the patients were compelled to get the tests done privately or from the Diagnostic Research Laboratory (DRL) situated alongside the pathological lab in the hospital, which charged highly for all tests and did not offer free of charge tests even to indoor patients.

The sources saw lethargy on part of management in getting the machines repaired as part of a systematic campaign to force closure of the pathological laboratory so that patients’ were left with no other option but to approach the DRL. The cell separator has been dysfunctional for several months. Its cost is believed to be around Rs7.5 million and it is far too expensive even for private sector laboratories because it involves use of a kit worth around Rs7,500. The machine is used for separating RBC (red blood cells), WBC (white blood cells) and platelets from blood. The sources said that platelets test cost Rs12,000 and its kits used in the machine were made available but now reports indicated that they had run out their life. The refrigerator, too, has been out of order for months. Another refrigerator, which is working can keep only a limited number of bags. “In case of emergency in the city, blood’s preservation can become a huge problem,” a source said.

Eighty per cent work (basic pathological tests) of the laboratory is carried out through auto analysers. The laboratory has three auto-analysers but only one named Hitachi is working. One of analysers worth Rs4 to 5 million needed just a few thousand rupees repair work, said the sources.

A source said that if the two analysers were repaired then one of them could be shifted to Jamshoro branch of the hospital where manual investigations were being done with chances of error. “The manual system can be used as backup if an auto analyser is provided,” he said.

Being the only major hospital of Sindh, the civil hospital, which is also called Liquat University Hospital’s city branch, caters to patients belonging to working and middle class of the city and those coming from far-flung areas of the province.

The laboratory charges nominally for different kinds of medical tests and investigations. It conducts around 85 tests and investigations mostly free of charge for indoor patients. Around 300 to 400 patients used the hospital’s laboratory daily, a source added. He said that even after offering free of charge tests, the lab was earning around Rs5 to Rs7 million every month. As compared to private laboratories, the lab charged hardly 20 per cent, he said.

The DRL was established for research but it was now conducting tests and investigations routinely. The so-called Hospital Management Committee had decided a few years ago to close down the hospital laboratory and the then LUMHS’s vice-chancellor Jan Mohammad Memon had defended the proposed closure, arguing that patients would get better facilities from the DRL and it would put an end to culture of free-ship. But he had to backtrack on the move under pressure from media. The sources said that professors continued to ask registrars to refer investigations to the DRL instead of the hospital’s pathological laboratory.

“If the campaign continues then the lab will one day be closed and patients will be left at the mercy of DRL,” said a doctor.

Civil Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. Abdul Jabbar Shaikh said that one of the analysers would start working by Tuesday while the other would also be repaired soon.

About the cell separator, he said, it was purchased in 2006-07 and he had asked chief pathologists to estimate cost of one kit used in it so that the separator could be put back to use.