According to available documents, there are more than 500 positions for doctors lying vacant in Pims. PHOTO: FILE
According to them, the existing number of government hospitals is not enough to serve the patients, due to heavy load not only from twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad but also from other cities.
They said that there is also need to build more hospitals besides increasing the existing staff and facilities at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and Federal Government Poly Clinic (FGPC) while considering the fact of increasing population. “Unlike medical practices abroad where one doctor examines five to seven patients in a day, here at the Pims each doctor has to examine around 100 patients daily at the OPD," Asim Awan, a patient said.
He added there is a dire need to fill the vacant posts of medical and paramedical staff at pims to cope with patients’ burden. Another patient Aamir Khan said many people face hardships as despite serious nature of illness, they have to wait for surgery or other procedures due to load of patients at Pims hospital. “I visited hospital's OPD for follow up checkup after surgery to consult my doctor but due to presence of large number of patients, I had to leave the hospital and go to the private clinic of the to be examined “
A patient, Afzal Ajmad complained of inadequate staff at FGPC and Pims emergency and OPD and appealed to deploy sufficient medical and paramedical staff for delivery of better services to the patients.
He suggested building of another Pims type hospital in the federal capital as presently hospitals are unable to manage the burden of patients.
According to available documents, There are more than 500 positions for doctors lying vacant in Pims as there are 816 sanctioned posts for doctors in the hospital whereas presently there are only 237 doctors serving the medical facility with 230 of them on permanent basis and seven on contract basis.
When contacted an official of Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination said that the ministry was working on fast track to improve health facilities for the masses. He said that special attention is being paid to improving patients care in two major hospitals of Islamabad that are catering to bulk patients not only from Islamabad but other areas of the countries adjacent to the federal capital.
Food ripening methods ‘hazardous for health’
He said that Pims was established with an aim to provide special health services to patients with critical diseases. However, the hospital has now become a major medical facility and the patients visit the hospital suffering from different diseases from all over the country.
He said that the vacant posts of doctors at PIMS pertain to direct quota have been advertised by FPSC, on June 28 this year, the result of written test has been announced and the interviews are awaited which will be held shortly.
The awaited posts include four Professors, seven Associate Professor, 29 Assistant Professor, 24 Senior Registrar, 21 Assistant Anesthetist, 14 Assistant Dental Surgeon and 294 Medical Officers.
Out of remaining 186 posts, 74 posts pertain to promotion quota and cases of promotion are under process.
He said that 112 posts, 51 posts of Assistant Professors and 61 posts of Senior Registrars were created on May this year. The recruitment or promotion against these posts will be made in second phase.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2018.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ