DARBHANGA: Unavailability of reagent, a substance or mixture for use in chemical analysis or other reactions, has hampered pathological investigation at Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital ( DMCH ).The pathological investigation process is so slow at the DMCH that patients get their reports three days after providing blood samples for investigation. The automatic blood chemistry analyzer (ABCA), which was installed in the clinical pathology department for rapid blood investigation on March 25 this year, is not being used for lack of reagent since one week. Instead, traditional semi-automatic blood analyzer (SABA) is being used and the patients get their reports after three days.Dr Shyamal Singh, head of the pathology department, said he had requested the hospital administration several times to take steps for supply of reagent, but to no avail.“When the ABCA was installed, the supplier had given a demo kit with reagents for investigation. With this kit, ABCA was being used till ten days ago and the patients used to get reports on the same day. The hospital administration was informed several times that ABCA would stop working as and when the reagents in the kit finish. However, the new kit was not made available to the department,” Dr Singh said.“On an average, 2,000 blood samples are collected from various departments of the hospital for investigation each day. With ABCA, multiple blood samples (50 to 60) were being investigated in one go. Reports were being readied within 20 minutes of receipt of blood samples,” he added.New DMCH superintendent Dr R R Prasad said reagents would be made available to the pathology department soon.

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