PESHAWAR, Jan 25: Unnecessary investigations and tests are adversely affecting the performance of public hospitals, doctors and technicians told Dawn on Monday.

Every patient admitted to the state-run hospital was asked to go for a number of unnecessary investigations, a doctor said.

Some investigations were considered to be routine tests, a surgeon said and added that every ward houses 20 to 30 patients and it becomes very difficult for only three to five nurses in the wards to collect samples and send them to laboratories.

He said that even laboratories in public hospitals were over burdened and the possibility of making mistakes was high. A nurse at a city hospital said that missing of X-ray, ECG and other investigations was a common feature because they were unable to handle the growing number of patients and their investigations.