Patients become victims as PIMS staff go on strike

Staffers say confusion over hospital’s status means several vacant posts remain unfilled

ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of patients visiting the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) seeking medical treatment were turned away on Monday as employees of the public sector hospital once again went on a strike, demanding the immediate separation of the hospital from its attached medical university.

Medical and non-medical employees of the hospital boycotted their duties, meaning that healthcare services were suspended at the outpatient and indoor departments of the hospital and operation theatres. Only the emergency and critical care units were functioning.

Pims was attached to the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) by the Pakistan Peoples Party government in March 2013.

Employees of the hospital have been protesting from time to time, demanding that the hospital’s former status as a government hospital.

After month-long protests and demonstrations, an amendment bill was introduced in the National Assembly in 2014 to separate the hospital from the varsity, end its autonomy and allow for the efficient management of both organisations. A 10-member committee was also constituted in this regard.

Despite assurances from lawmakers and the government, the bill failed to get the parliament’s nod.

Last year, after the hospital’s employees went on another round of strikes over the issue, Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary convinced staffers to call off their strike, assuring them that a new bill separating SZABMU and Pims will be passed soon.



But a year on from when those promises were made, the bill is still pending with CADD, returned after various ministries and committees made a host of observations and objections over it.

“Legislations driven by political motives are passed within no time by the parliament but an amendment that is of public importance is pending for years” lamented Pims Restoration Movement Chairman Dr Asfandyar Khan.

“People [staffers] have lost hope and do not want to work [at the hospital] now,” he said, adding that civil servant rights of staffers have been mixed up with administrative matters of the hospital leading to confusion over the status of both institutes.

As a result of the confusion, Dr Asfandyar said that recruitment on various vacant positions at the hospital are also pending since the FPSC has refused to entertain it terming the hospital an autonomous body. As a result, he said that the existing staff was overburdened with the public suffering.

Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the SZABMU syndicate have already approved a plan to separate the hospital from the university, but still, the matter is pending in parliament causing agitation amongst the hospital employees.

Patients the victims

Despite the wrangling between the government and hospital staff, it was the poor patients who bore the brunt of the strike.

On Monday, OPD services were suspended at the main hospital as well as specialized centres adjoining the hospital like the burns and gynaecology centres.

Various scheduled procedures were also put on hold.

According to one official, over 100 operations scheduled at the hospital on Monday were not performed.

Patients waited for hours as paramedical staffers continued their day-long sit-in inside the hospital after which the patients returned without receiving any medical care.

“I had arrived at 9am from Sihala to see a doctor for my hepatitis treatment, but there was no one in the OPD,” said patient Abdul Raheem.

“I waited hoping that the employees may restart work after a few hours but I am heading home now as they say the strike will continue till they see a notification separating the hospital from the university, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2017.