Metamorphosis: How the paan-stained laboratory of Jinnah hospital turns into a state-of-the-art facility

Dr Naila Tariq started to make changes when she joined in 2010.

KARACHI:

The joke at Jinnah hospital is that if you have a test done in the morning it will have a certain result and if you have the same test done in the evening, the result will be different.

Indeed, till last year, the clinical pathology department was an excellent example of a typical government hospital. The walls of the only laboratory, which runs about 1,000 tests a day, were stained red from paan spit. The walls were plastered with posters of political parties, the furniture was decayed and the management not much different.

“You can imagine how accurate the test results would have been in these conditions,” says Dr Naila Tariq, the chief of the clinical pathology department, who joined Jinnah hospital in January 2010.

But now, the department can be compared to any other state-of-the-art laboratory.

In Dr Tariq’s words, it was like a public park where anyone and everyone was welcome to stroll in. “There was no reception area and no concept of work space,” she says. “There were no standard operating procedures and no task-specified spaces.” All the rooms were illegally occupied or were filled with stuff and locked up. It was like a ‘fish market’.  The lab had a staff of 40 to 50 people but they were not used to working for long hours. There was no shortage of work as six units were running: biochemistry, microbiology, serology, urine DR, hematology and hormone analysis.

The first thing Tariq did was to restrict access to the laboratory. Its area was divided into separate sections for each unit. The storerooms were opened up and the computers which were gathering dust dragged out to put to use making reports which were otherwise done by hand. The staff was taught to complete their duty hours and their responsibilities were defined.

Anis Memon, who works in the biochemistry unit, says that it was much easier to work now. “We have more machines and resources to keep them in order. The system is more organised and we can keep everything in order easily.” Another staff member, Bashir Ahmed, found the cleanliness a huge relief.

Tariq managed to turn the department around on her own and initially faced tough resistance. Every time the walls were freshly painted, new posters and paan spit would appear. But she did not stop.

After noticing the hard work she was putting in and the results, a non-governmental organisation, the Patients Aid Foundation (PAF), agreed to help and set up a reception area for her. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies agreed to loan equipment for specialised tests, such as auto, electrolyte and immune analysers and other machines. The patients can now be tested for hepatitis B and C for only Rs450, while other hospitals charge at least Rs1,500.

Now Tariq has her eyes set on the evening laboratory which is currently managed by only two people. She wants to set up a central collection unit with the laboratory which can work round the clock.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2012.