Govt cuts nearly Rs1b for PIMS

Unreleased money would have been used for mortuary refrigerator, new MRI machine

ISLAMABAD: Even as the facility groans under the weight of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) patients, the federal government has decided to cut nearly a billion rupees for the largest tertiary care facility in the federal capital.

Documents seen by The Express Tribune show that the federal government had allocated over Rs1.92 billion for 13 projects of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the fiscal year 2019-20. The projects and the allocated money were aimed at upgrading facilities at the hospital.

The documents showed that so far, the federal government has released Rs971.272 million for revamping 10 different departments at the health facility and for procuring electromedical equipment.

Under PSDP 2019-2020, the government released Rs20.6 million for establishing a nursing hostel, Rs30.68 million for a medical waste disposal plant (as ordered by the Supreme Court), almost Rs60 million each for purchasing equipment for the ear, nose throat (ENT) and epidemiology departments. Further, around Rs540.5 million were released for repairing and upgrading the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) plant room, Rs20.79 million for revamping the nephrology department and Rs100 million for upgrading the gastroenterology department.

However, the documents read that funds worth over Rs800 million have not been issued by the government due to unidentified reasons. The projects brought to a halt due to the absence of funds include the upgrade and installation of refrigerators in the hospital’s mortuary and a project to procure new magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) machine for the facility.

Moreover, the government only released Rs30.35 million of the Rs430 million allocated for expanding the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Mother and Child Centre and Children’s hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2020.