ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be a worrisome situation both for doctors and patients, the pathology department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has started developing faulty test reports.
The PIMS being the major public sector hospital in the capital is being run under severe negligence due to which the patients have suffered the most.
According to sources, the machines at pathology department started producing faulty tests’ reports due to which the doctors often advised the patients to carry their tests from private laboratories. They said that the wrong results of laboratory tests were really a serious issue, which often put the management at an embarrassing situation, but no attention was being paid to iron out the issue, putting the life of the poor patients at risk.
The sources further said that most of the tests were very expensive, and could not be afforded by every patient, to get it done from private laboratories outside the hospital, but due to the non-reliable laboratory reports at the PIMS they were left with no option but to get the tests done from private laboratories.
Due to the non-availability of reliable test facilities, patients were being compelled to carry out tests at private labs, paying double the amount as compared to the rates in public hospitals, which was also unaffordable for a layman.
The sources said that most of patients were referred to carry out tests from private laboratories because the doctors had very little trust on hospital laboratories, which made life for the poor patients very difficult.
A patient who carried out tests in PIMS laboratory, copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, indicated that the reports of the tests conducted at laboratory at PIMS were faulty as the platelet count shown in the test put the doctor in quandary. The doctor hence asked the patient to repeat the test.
A relative of the patient, on a condition of anonymity, said that even after conducting the test for the second time the result could not satisfy the doctors. “A doctor told me that correct reports could not be produced due to some technical fault in the equipments hence it was directed to prepare a manual result of the test,” he added.
He said that due to utter frustration, the doctor eventually asked him to carry out the test from a private lab so he conducted all tests from a private laboratory and there were great difference in platelet count.
Similarly, in another test’s results conducted in PIMS pathology department, the sodium and potassium counts caught the pathologist by surprise who said that the quantity was not sufficient hence it should be repeated.
A senior doctor said that it was truly a very serious issue but no one paid any heed to it because no new recruitment had been made and politics had ruined most of the major public sector hospital. There was acute shortage of staff in the facility so if someone went on leave, it burdened the staffers negatively impacting the working of other colleagues, he added.
The doctor also said that there were often problems in the software but they hardly found a relevant person on the spot to fix the problem immediately due to staff shortage.
When contacted, PIMS Pathology Department head Dr Ashok Kumar Tanwani said that the PIMS pathology department had state-of-the-art equipment where over 90 per cent of patients’ tests were being carried out free of cost.
He also said that there was a huge burden on the hospital, which indicated the trust of the public on the hospital, adding that no one could conduct wrong tests intentionally but might happen sometimes due to human error.
He informed that no one had ever brought any such thing in his knowledge otherwise he was always present in the office to address any issue then and there. He added that since there was an acute staff shortage in the department, as no new recruitment had been made for the last ten years despite a massive increase in the ratio of patients, one or two minor problems might arise in a month.
He however vowed that they were trying to their best in whatever the limited resources they had at their disposal.