Tinsukia: A doctor in Tinsukia civil hospital, Palash Jyoti Dutta, expressed helplessness in providing exact treatment to patients, claiming that the reports of most of the sonographies done at Life Line Hospital, which has a tie-up with the civil hospital, are incorrect and cannot be depended upon.

"We do not depend on Life Line Hospital's reports which are mostly incorrect. There are instances when the sonography says the patients have gallbladder problems, but it turns out to be false. Sometimes the reports suggest patients are normal. We ask the patients to repeat the tests but poor patients cannot do so and we are unable to provide exact treatment," he said.

On Friday, a doctor asked a patient, Ruma Das, to repeat an abdomen sonography elsewhere. She had got a sonography done at Life Line Hospital a day before.

Her husband, Gopal Das, said: "On Friday, a doctor asked me to repeat a sonography for my wife at Ultra Lab, a private diagnostic centre, saying the report from Life Line is incorrect. Why does the hospital send us to Life Line in the first place, wasting our money and time? We are poor people. Where shall I get more money for fresh tests?" Das complained that he had to purchase medicines from outside against the government's claims of providing free medicines.

All attempts to speak to the Life Line Hospital in-charge were futile.