LARKANA: There is no histopathologist in Chandka Medical College (CMCH) Larkana for the past one year due to which poor patients are suffering very badly, while medico-legal cases (including those of exhumations) are also being mishandled, which are always conducted on court directives. After the retirement of Dr Manzoor Ahmed Shaikh, Assistant Professor of Pathology Department, SMBBMU, all investigations of FNAC and Biopsy have been closed down in the CMC and medico-legal cases are being performed by chemical pathologists instead of histo-pathologist, who are unaware of their legal requirements, formalities and complications. One such case surfaced on Friday when the CMC Principal, Prof Dr K Das, directed an associate professor of pathology Dr Ghulam Shabir Shaikh to accompany an exhumation board of deceased Seema Solangi along with police surgeon at Seeta village of Dadu district who replied in writing that he has no previous experience of such cases of obtaining viscera hence shall be unable to prepare proper report which involved legal & technical matters. He further wrote to appoint proper histo-pathologist for this purpose as he is post-graduate in chemical pathology but the principal insisted that he should go there in view of the shortage of required experts which has exposed the shortage of teaching faculty in CMC which will ultimately not only affect the students’ education that are enrolled to become future doctors but it has also exposed how legal issues are handled without proper technical hands. As many as 500 such cases of Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) patients were dealt monthly by the pathology department which are now being refused since past about one year because of non-availability of qualified histopathologist. The SMBBMU authorities have neither recruited a fresh expert hand not any substitute has so far been provided to carryout these tasks. All cases of FNAC and Biopsy are now being carried out at private laboratories by the poverty-stricken patients costing them extra that arrive here from as many as 12 districts of upper Sindh, parts of Balochistan and lower part of Punjab. This has also resulted in huge earnings by private labs as indoor & OPD patients are always asked to get these tests done from outside for which they pay large sum of amounts which over burden the already burdened ailing people. The test of FNAC is charged by a private laboratory between Rs:400 to 1000/- per case and biopsy between Rs:1000 to 5000/- per case and at the university these vital tests were carried out free of cost. This has greatly burdened the already massively hit ailing people of interior Sindh who are also suffering from worst unemployment and price hike. These tests are vital for proper diagnosis of any disease otherwise accurate treatment cannot be provided which mostly result in prolonging the treatment process in which only doctor earns but poor needy patients always loose.