Call to check illegal labs in Gujranwala

GUJRANWALA: Hundreds of illegal labs are working without qualified staff in the district.

These labs are playing with the lives of the patients by using substandard equipment and chemicals. Mostly labs are running on Hospital Road and its surrounding areas.

There is no regulatory authority to check the qualification of the staff working in these laboratories. It was reported that only few labs have legal documents to run their business. Sources told that in most cases, technicians and laboratory assistants working in the labs had fake documents from unregistered private medical institutions. Sources told that mostly labs had not possessed the cold chain, which was necessary for storing medicines and chemicals while most of the chemicals used in medical tests were ineffective as the same were not kept at minus eight degree centigrade temperature. The doctors said that in most of the cases, the results of medical tests conducted by the laboratories were not correct.

When contacted, the spokesman for the Health Department claimed that health teams were conducting raids and taking legal action against illegal labs.