UTH RUNS OUT OF REAGENTS

By Scoop Reporter

THE University Teaching Hospital (UTH) main laboratory has been without any reagents for the past one year grounding certain aspects of health service provision and leaving patients in panic.

A check by The Scoop found that the facility’s main laboratory was not conducting tests on individuals that were not on the National Health Insurance Management Authority (NHIMA) as the patients were being referred to the Royal Diagnostics Centre within the Hospital.

However, a number of patients complained that they could not meet the fees since they were not on NHIMA.

Patients who wanted to conduct full blood counts and test for diseases like hepatitis were being told to find other alternatives because the hospital did not have reagents.

A source who opted to remain anonymous said that the issue had remained unresolved for a long time as patients were being made to pay elsewhere where the service was available to get tested because the hospital’s main laboratory did not have the equipment.

“The situation is that the main laboratory does not have reagents so what is happening is that patients are being sent to the Royal Diagnostic Centre which is a private clinic but has now been co-opted,” the source said.

They called on Health Minister Sylvia Masebo to quickly move in because people’s lives were at stake if no action was taken.

Efforts to get a comment from hospital authorities proved futile by press time.