PESHAWAR, Nov 26: Non-availability of patients' record at hospitals is causing problems for patients and doctors, health officials said. "My mother was admitted to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), but she died after five days.

Later, I asked for her treatment chart and death summery which was not available," said, one Mohammad Jamil.

Mr Jamil needed the record because his employers asked him to bring the medical bills for reimbursement. "Now, the department is unable to reimburse Rs40,000 which I spent on my mother's treatment," he said.

The LRH, Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) claim to have established central record rooms, but owing to lack of computers and trained staff the documents are lost.

On discharge from hospital, patients' charts are withheld by the hospitals and a discharge slip is issued without any details. "Sometimes we need record of the patients for clinical purposes, but in most cases the record remains unavailable," a physician at the KTH said, adding that there was a record room, where the patients' charts were gathering dust.

"We send the treatment charts to the record room after the patient leaves. It is the responsibility of the record room's people to maintain the record and provide to the patients or doctors when needed," said a dispenser at a surgical ward of a teaching hospital.

A clerk at a record room of one of the teaching hospitals said that he alone was supposed to take care of the record. "In a tiny and dusty room, it is impossible to keep the record of the patients for over the last 20 years. We have simple registers, which some time get displaced," said the recorder.

A doctor said that he could not get the record of his wife's treatment and medical tests. He said that his wife had to again undergo many tests when re-admitted to a medical unit.