KARACHI, June 14: The Director General of Health, Sindh, Dr Hadi Bakhsh Jatoi, ordered an inquiry on the complaint of a banking court judge who alleged that a private hospital had issued contradictory laboratory reports of his four-year son.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Dr Jatoi said that he had set up a committee to probe into the issue of alleged “fake laboratory reports”, which were issued by the Aga Khan University Hospital about two weeks back.

He said the banking court judge, Riaz Ahmad Phulpoto, had said in a communiqué that due to an incorrect haematology report, he and his family members were shocked to know that the liver of his son, Abdul Malik, was not functioning properly.

“The Judge, while exercising power under the CrPC, had also directed me to conduct an enquiry pertaining to the authenticity of the documents and to submit a report to him within 30 days,” Dr Jatoi said.

He said the enquiry committee, headed by him, will meet at the MS office of the Civil Hospital Karachi on June 20 and hear the concerned parties, including the chief administrator of the AKU Hospital.

It was learnt that Mr Phulpoto had also moved the Law, Justice and Human Rights Division of the federal government for permission to file a suit for damages against the Aga Khan Hospital.

In his letter to the secretary of the law division, the judge stated that his son, Abdul Malik, had been running with temperature when Prof Dr D S Akram advised to do three tests; complete blood count, malaria parasite SGPT and blood culture (BL) tests.

After seeing the reports issued by the AKU lab on June 3, Dr Akram was shocked to know that the child’s liver was not functioning properly, advising his parents to admit the child immediately to the AKU Hospital’s emergency.

The child was shifted to the hospital on June 4, where the tests in question were performed twice, the details of which negated the first report, which had showed many of the blood counts far lower than the normal range.

According to the judge, the last two reports were similar, negating the first report in toto, which reflected that there was a gross negligence and carelessness on the part of the hospital. This caused mental agony, and upset the family, in addition to economic sufferings.

“Though my son is normal now, the laboratory test episode calls for a serious look into such blunders. The authority concerned should maintain a check and balance so that no such incidents recurred to cause pain agony sorrow to the public at large,” Judge Phulpoto told Dawn.