LARKANA, Dec 22: A three-member team of the Blood Transfusion Authority completed inspection of blood banks and laboratories in Larkana, Shikarpur and Jacobabad districts on Wednesday.

Dr Dileep, Dr Farooq Rehman Soomro and Dr Ghulam Murtaza Pathan were members of the team which had begun the inspection on December 18. According to district focal person for the authority Dr Soomro, they asked owners of seven blood banks and laboratories to immediately close them down as they were found unfit for conducting blood screening and other tests.

The blood banks and laboratories are: Sukkur Blood Bank, Sachal Bughio Blood Bank, Iqra Blood Bank and Laboratory, Al-Shahbaz Blood Bank and Laboratory, Ali Blood Bank, Larkana Blood Bank and Hina Laboratory. They were served notices under the Safe Blood Transfusion Act 1987.

None of the laboratories working in Shikarpur and Jacobabad was found fit for conducting blood screening and other tests. The team asked the Central, Shaikh Zayed, and other laboratories outside the Chandka Medical College Hospital and Al-Murtaza Blood Bank to improve their performance and standard.

Thirteen blood banks and laboratories that had submitted to stop blood screening still continued the practice. They include Sachal Laboratory and pick-up points serving as blood banks in the Sindh, Sarfraz, City, Almas, Larkana, Abbasi and Mehran medical Centres.

Dr Dileep will submit the findings to Dr Farhana Memon, the provincial programme manager of the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority. Faisal Malik, Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister for Health, in a letter to the executive district officers (health) of Larkana, Shikarpur and Jacobabad on December 17 had asked them to submit reports on registered and un-registered laboratories working in their districts within three days.

KILLED: Ahmed Ali Abbasi, a lecturer in the Government Elementary College, Larkana, was killed after being hit by a motorcycle on the VIP Road here on Wednesday.