PESHAWAR, Jan 30: The provincial government has not appointed female technicians in public sector hospitals disregarding its directive issued half a year ago that ECG and ultrasound tests of women patients will be conducted only by female staff , officials say.

The health department had issued directives to all public sector hospitals in the province in August 2003, asking them to ensure that ECG and ultrasound of women patients was conducted by female technicians and radiologists in line with the teachings of Islam and local traditions.

The hospitals were asked to comply with the directives immediately. Talking to this correspondent, an official said there was only one female ECG technician at the Khyber Teaching Hospital who died a few months ago.

There is not a single female ultrasound specialist in any public sector hospital after the only female qualified ultra sonographist in the province left for Saudi Arabia sometime back.

"The government issued the directive without doing its homework and taking into consideration the ground realities," said an ultrasound specialist at the Lady Reading Hospital.