PIMS to get a facelift: President steps in to save a faltering institution

Directs upgradation and revamping of the country’s largest referral hospital.


Sehrish Wasif June 11, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


President Asif Ali Zardari wants to make Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) the best health care institute, as was promised when it was established over two decades ago.


While being set up in 1985, the government promised that Pims will be the best hospital in the country and a trendsetter in the provision of health services. Almost 26 years on, the institute is far from achieving such a status.

For the last few years, the country’s largest referral hospital has been in the limelight for more reasons than one.

Several issues of corruption, irregularities and medical negligence have recently come to the fore. The hospital was one of the focal points of the young doctors’ strike in the twin cities two months.

And then the arrest of suspected terrorists, who had planned to attack the President during his aborted plan to visit his ailing father at the hospital, raised serious questions over the hospital’s security.

A recent case of negligence, where two women lost their lives and many others got ill due to ‘infection after a medical procedure’, shows  the fall in the quality of the service being offered at the hospital.

In this backdrop, the President’s interest in its affairs shows the gravity of the situation.

President Zardari held a meeting with a delegation from Pims at the Presidency on Friday. The team comprised Prof. Mehmood Jamal Executive Director Pims, Dr Jahanzeb Khan, Prof. Iqbal Memon, Prof. M Tariq, Prof. Ghiasuddin Butt, Prof. Iqbal Saifullah, Dr Badarus Samad, Sumera Malik, Dr Saqlian Shah, Dr Shahee Siddiqui, Abdullah Khan and Shazia.

The President ordered setting up of a committee to prepare a comprehensive plan for revamping and upgrading of the hospital. The team will comprise federal secretaries of Health, Finance, Economic Affair Division, Pims Executive Director and other stakeholders.

The President said that the existing facilities at Pims should be upgraded and necessary renovations would be undertaken to enable the institute to provide quality health care to the people.

President Zardari expressed the hope that after the successful resolution of doctors’ issues, the staff would do their best to provide
quality health services and facilitate the common people and patients, especially the poor.

The President was informed during the meeting that Pims was established in 1985 and has been providing tertiary care services to the general public since then.

It has more than 1,000 beds and the outpatient load on the hospital averages at about 5,000 per day.

The hospital is linked to many other satellite hospitals in Islamabad Capital Territory, together these provide an integrated health care system to the residents and surrounding rural areas, the president was told.

Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Health Minister M Salman Farooqui, Secretary Health Nargis Sethi and Director General Health Asad Hafeez  and other senior officials from the health ministry were also present during the meeting.







Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2011.

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