Funds, staff shortage: Pathological, Molecular Lab at ASH not fully operational

Pathological and Molecular Labs at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital are apparently not rendering full services for patients due to which the supplier has stopped providing medical kits used in blood screening for the tests for Hepatitis B&C, LFT, PCR and other diseases.
Sources said that due to financial constraints, administration of ASH could not clear the outstanding dues, which resulted in stoppage of supply of medical kits to the facility. The payments of medicine supplier have not been made for the last two years, they added.
However, an official at ASH told Business Recorder that the management is using other funds for purchasing the kits to facilitate the patients but it could not meet the requirement as the number of patients is much higher than the resources available. He said that ASH administration and higher authorities of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation have been intimated several times for getting the funds but to no avail.
Furthermore, theft of medicines from the facility has become a lucrative source of extra income for corrupt hospital staff, while poor patients are at the receiving end, as they have to either purchase drugs from private medical stores or simply discontinue their treatment. The facility continues to face severe shortage of doctors, paramedics and medicines for the last several months, making it miserable for the patients. Medical stores adjacent to the very hospital thrive on the rising demand for the medicines.
The facility has a 120-bed capacity for general, paediatrics, gynaecological and surgical patients, showing that the hospital currently just operates as a day-care centre for mothers, children and outpatient department patients, mainly due to the apathy of the authorities concerned.
"Doctors just overlook the patient here and write medicines on a chit, which we have to buy from the nearby medical stores as the hospital staffs tells us that none of them are available there," a patient complained. They revealed that the visiting patients in OPD as well as admitted patients are buying medicines from private medical stores as the hospital administration has failed to give them relief. OPD patients also confirmed that due to the unavailability of medicines at the hospital, they are buying medicines from private medical stores.
Sources said around 800 patients visit the emergency centre, adding the hospital is facing the shortage of paramedical staff as only 160 staffers are there at the 1,000-bed hospital. Director Medical Services KMC, Dr Nasir Jawaid Shaikh told this scribe that due to shortage funds medicines could not be provided at facility.
He said that due to the absence of kits at Molecular and Pathological, some tests are not being conducted, however, he claimed that Hepatitis tests are being carried out at the facility. Abbasi Shaheed Hospital is the biggest public sector facility being run under KMC where hundreds of patients visit daily to get screened for Hepatitis B&C and other pathological and molecular diseases. The tests, which are not been carried-out include Creatinine, LFT, Ripids, Hepatitis C & D and others.
The Molecular laboratory was inaugurated by then City Nazim City District Government Karachi on 5th July 2009, aimed at providing proper medical and health care facilities to the citizens. The cost of the project was about Rs 10 million. The molecular laboratory was to provide screening in just five rupees for all those diseases for which the other private labs of the city charge thousands of rupees.