Deceased patient’s relatives accuse PIMS staff of negligence

ISLAMABAD: Alleging negligence on the part of healthcare staff, relatives of a patient who died at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) protested at the hospital for not giving due care to the patient.

The patient, Rizwana Bibi, 60, suffering from tuberculosis was brought to the hospital four days ago and according to doctors she was in the last stage of the disease. On Saturday she expired and upon hearing this the relatives started protesting saying she was not treated properly. The relatives alleged that the hospital administration despite the serious condition of the patient neither provided ventilator nor shifted her to intensive care unit.



However, the hospital administration said the patient who was being treated at a private hospital earlier was brought to the hospital without prior intimation. The hospital has only 80 ventilators and all were engaged except one which is out of order, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram told the media.

It is against hospital policy to put off the ventilator from any patient for a new one as it can take the life of the already admitted patients, he said. The hospital said it has asked people not to bring critical patients without intimation as it has shortage of ventilators and space.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2017.