Minister promises new staff and equipment

All children must be vaccinated to prevent spread of deadly diseases

ISLAMABAD: Federal Health Minister Aamer Mehmood Kiani who conducted a surprise visit of two public sector hospitals said patient care in major hospitals in the federal capital will be improved and new staff and equipment will be added into the existing system to manage the patient load.

Kiani conducted a surprise visit of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and Polyclinic hospitals in Islamabad on Saturday. Chairman of Prime Minister’s taskforce on health Dr Nausherwan Burki also accompanied the minister to acquire knowledge of the hospital’s functioning and to suggest measures for reforms.  Dr Nausherwan was the key member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa (K-P) team who brought out reforms in the healthcare system in the province.



On this occasion a detailed presentation on projects and budget of PIMS was given by PIMS Executive Director Raja Amjad Mehmood.

Established in 1985, he said, the biggest tertiary care hospital has a 1,150 bed facility for indoor healthcare.  The patient load of OPD was 434,633 when it was first made functional, but has now increased to 1,254,024 patients in 2017-18 annually. Likewise, 24,898 patients coming for emergency care in 1987-88 have risen to 628,252 between the years 2017-18.



Mehmood said 5,455 patients used to be admitted in the hospital. The number has now increased to 72,367. Blood tests by pathology department in the initial years were 315,614 that have been increased to 3,181,824 now.

While the patient load increased many folds in previous years, the human resource and the facilities were not upgraded to meet the demands.

Even the sanctioned positions are not filled and out of total 4,190 positions of various grades about 2,764 are filled while some 1,426 positions mostly of higher grades are vacant.

Total budget of the hospital is Rs4.245 billion and of this 51 percent goes to salaries of employees.

It was requested that the budget of medicines be increased from Rs208.75 million to Rs625 million to provide 100 percent free medicines to all patients.

Kiani along with other officials also took a round of the outpatient department (OPD), emergency ward, cardiac center, orthopedic, nephrology and other departments at PIMS and appreciated the recent improvements done in the hospital.

Moreover, he visited the vaccination centre of Polyclinic to monitor the immunisation of children and mothers at the facility. He directed that all children of eligible age must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of deadly diseases.

During his visit to Polyclinic hospital, he took a round of the emergency, gynecology and children's wards. He directed that no effort be spared in providing best possible treatment to the patients adding that there will be zero tolerance for negligence in this regard.

Furthermore, Kiani said that in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan we are moving on a fast track to improve health facilities for the masses. Special attention is being paid to improving patient care in two major hospitals of Islamabad that are catering to the bulk of patients not only from Islamabad but other areas of the country close to the federal capital.

He said we will make PIMS a model hospital and revamp services and pay structure of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff.

The government will increase the funds and human resource for improvement of patients care, Kiani added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2018.