Pathology department at PIC was established in December 2020 from the very first day of hospital inauguration. It was really tough as there was no preexisting laboratory and blood bank set up in the hospital. Currently the facility is organized for pathology diagnosis and delivering clinical services as well for which different sections are made and they are fully functional.

In hematology section the hematology analyzer and automated coagulation analyzer are introduced and they are running successfully now. In specialized services the Bone marrow and trephine biopsy reporting is introduced along with correction studies. Every slide of peripheral blood is considered as a patient and reviewed with expert opinion and advice whether demanded by the client or not. Uptill now we have performed 17627 tests in hematology most of which are CBC with differentials. In coagulation studies we have done 3760 tests the results of PT/APTT with INR are not challenged by any clients. Which shows lab error of less than 1%.

Fully functional blood bank and transfusion services are there, started as a storage facility for RCC and FFP. Now with time platelet storage facility is also introduced. We had an MOU with the Regional Blood Centre Peshawar who is also supporting us in blood and blood components. We are now preparing our own blood components as we have purchased standard Cryofuges for the best indoor and outdoor transfusion services. The concept of rationale use of blood and blood components is applied in the PIC through hospital transfusion committee. Hem vigilance and CT ratios are monitored. For pediatric cardiology and pediatric cardiac surgery patients we have introduced cryoprecipitate a rare blood component for proper replacement of required factors in children when required. Immunohematology is performed with expert hands. Uptill now 2281 blood groups and cross matches are performed with no transfusion errors with key performance indicator maintenance, which shows very satisfactory transfusion service. Gel card for cross

matches are started from the very first day and we are the first public sector hospital performing cross matches on gel cards in khyberpukhtonkhwa.

We have introduced hematology and anticoagulation clinic for better monitoring of warfarin in cardiac patients, national guidelines are followed in this regard, we are also focusing on the management of benign hematological disorders through this clinic. Establishment of this clinic is the first such step in any public sector hospital at KPK.

Routine and special chemistry is performed on state of the art equipment like Architect from ABBOTT, all the tests are monitored through internal quality control program. The key performance indicators like critical values and turnaround time are monitored and the client is informed well in time in case of any such value. The quality of the sample tube is routinely checked and improved routinely for better results. 115890 routine chemistry tests are performed till date while 19155 special chemistry tests including immunology are performed.

Microbiology section is introduced in June 2021, purchasing of incubators, safety cabinet, autoclaves were done and we are now performing wide range of cultures with further improvement in clinical pathology section, for which a semi-automated urine analyzer is also introduced with time for better reporting of urine r/e. About 1486 cultures are performed in which 159 environmental cultures are taken from OR/ICU as a part of hospital infection control programme. For COVID-19 PCR we had an MOU with Khyber medical university reference laboratory, they have allotted us with a user name and password for PIC samples, our COVID-19 counter at ER PIC is busy in sampling of all patients going for surgery or admissions, samples are registered here in PIC on KMU IPMS website and then transported to KMU lab, efforts were made for the quick results and now they are sending us the results online in next 24-36 hrs. Our staff at PIC is also availing the facility if someone is suspecting COVID-19 infection as part of infection control programme. 8753 PIC cases are reported by the reference lab till date.

We have set an ideal phlebotomy services by hiring well trained staff a dedicated phlebotomy room was labelled on the ground floor near OPD for patients easy approach, we are using vacutainer and butterfly needles for our patients and we are the first in any public sector hospital at KPK for using standard needles for patient sampling. The KPIs of rejection samples and hemloysed samples are also monitored regularly.

Now we are doing academic sessions on every Thursday and a journal club on every Tuesday. We have a very professional research environment, KMU MPHIL scholars bench training in hematology at PIC is also requested by the university, MOU is received and management is looking at its feasibility. Decision is expected in near future. In research work a pioneer paper from PIC is published by the pathology department on “Blood Wastages” in Indian international journal ACTA scientific, Continuous Technical Education for lab staff is routinely planned and record is kept in the lab files.