PIMS Pathology Dept going headless

Hospital administration yet to appoint head of department

ISLAMABAD: The Department of Pathology of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) is running headless due to the personal likes and dislikes of hospital administration, sources said.

Ten days past the retirement of Pathology Department head of department (HoD) Dr Hassan Abbass, the hospital administration has yet to appoint a new one.

Pims Executive Director Anser Maxood said that this is a routine matter and soon a new HoD of the pathology department will be appointed. While, on the other side sources said that hospital’s top bosses were not in the favour of giving the seat to next in line senior most doctor for appointment as HoD because of that they were using delaying tactics.

According to standard operating procedures, if the head of the any department retired then the senior most doctor of the department was appointed as the HoD.

In fact, a notification for the appointment of a new head was issued four weeks before the retirement of the former head, but this has not being done in the Pims pathology department. Sources said that the reason was that the hospital administration was not in favour of making Dr Ruksana, the senior most doctor in the department, as HoD.

Dr Rukhsana has been working in grade 19 from 2015, sources said adding that according to SOP, she has to be appointed as HoD, but the hospital administration wants to replace her with a junior doctor, but according to the rules they could not do this.

According to the sources, three months remaining to end the tenure of Dr Rukhsana, so the hospital administration wants the matter to remain suspended for three months and after her retirement other officer will be appointed as head. Sources said that Dr Rukhsana was also suspended once during the tenure of previous ED, which was investigated by the Secretary of Health and declared her clear and retained on post. Sources said that there are four section of pathology department, including chemical pathology, haematology, microbiology and histopathology.

Among these, two sections were working under medical officers. While Dr Rukshana was in-charge of chemical pathology and Dr Ambreen, a grade 18 officer, was in-charge of histopathology.

According to regulations, a HoD was necessary to run all four sections. In this regard Pims Executive the head of the hospital doctor Maxood said that appointment of new Head of Department is not a matter of choice or dislike, it is a matter of routine, and notification of appointment of new head will be made in due time.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2020.