LANDI KOTAL, Nov 14: More than 50 medical laboratories in Khyber Agency operate without qualified staff and play with the lives of tribal patients by using substandard equipment and chemicals, sources say.

Sources privy to the ‘business’ in Landi Kotal said that illegal laboratories registered a sharp increase during the recent months as there was no regulatory authority to check the qualification of the staff working in those laboratories.

Out of the total 56 clinical laboratories, 46 have been set up in Landi Kotal while the rest operate in Jamrud. “Only three out of the total 56 laboratories possess legal documents and these are run by qualified staff,” sources said.

They said that most of the staffers working in those illegal laboratories were technically as well as educationally unqualified. “In Landi Kotal some of these laboratories are run and owned by Afghan nationals, who have not attended school let alone getting medical or technical training,” sources said.

They said that in most cases, technicians and laboratory assistants working in those labs had acquired fake documents from unregistered private medical institutions in Lahore and other cities of Punjab.

“As per law, even a genuine degree from an institute in Punjab is not acceptable in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Fata,” sources said, adding that only recognised institutions in Peshawar were entitled to issue such degrees to the students after completion of certain courses necessary for running a medical laboratory.

Former agency surgeon Dr Azam Wazir had taken action against these illegal laboratories in Landi Kotal in May last. He had sealed all of the laboratories except two after checking documents of the owners and staffers working there. But within a week, most of the owners forcibly broke the official seals and resumed their business. No action was taken against them since then despite a mushroom growth of such laboratories.

“Since then the number of such laboratories has almost doubled as no one in Fata Health Directorate is ready to shoulder the responsibility of inquiring about the legality of this inhuman business,” sources said.

A former laboratory owner in Jamrud told Dawn that not a single laboratory possessed the cold chain, which was necessary for storing medicines and chemicals. Requesting not to be named, he said that most of the chemicals used in medical tests were ineffective as the same were not kept at minus eight degree centigrade temperature.

“It is simply not possible to follow this rule as the area is without electricity for 12 to 16 hours on daily basis owing to excessive loadshedding,” he said. He added that some of the laboratories didn’t even possess a refrigerator but despite that they were conducting medical tests.

He alleged that doctors at the agency headquarters hospital in Landi Kotal and civil hospital in Jamrud were also hand in glove with the owners of laboratories.

However, doctors at both the hospitals refuted the allegations and said that they had no official authority to check working of such illegal laboratories. “We are totally helpless to stop such illegal practices as the laboratory owners struck an underhand deal with the higher authorities after their labs in Landi Kotal were sealed,” they said.

The doctors said that in most of the cases the results of medical tests conducted by those laboratories were not correct but they relied on their own expertise and recommended medicines to the patients.

The newly appointed Agency Surgeon, Dr Samin, when contacted, said that he had ordered an investigation into the legality of the documents of all the laboratories operating in Khyber Agency. He said that he would also check the qualification of the staff working in those laboratories. He said that no one would be spared if he failed to meet the criteria.