PIMS employees set up hunger strike camp

Medical professionals protesting against law allowing private practice at public hospital went on a symbolic hunger strike on Friday.

All healthcare services remained suspended at at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), the capital’s largest tertiary hospital and scores of patients were left searching for doctors. The protest of medical and paramedical staff at Pimsagainst the imposition of Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) Act entered a new stage with a hunger strike camp. Employees, rejecting to become subordinate to a Board of Directors (BoD) declared going on hunger strike after 12 consecutive days of protests against the MTI Act.

“MTI Act has failed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. We will not allow the government to have another failed experiment,” said Grand Health Alliance Chairman Dr Asfandyar Khan. The hunger strike will continue till the MTI Act is withdrawn by the government, he said addressing a small crowd of Pims employees who were chanting anti-government slogans. Dr Asfandyar said that instead of increasing employment opportunities, the government is also making the working people unemployed. It is useless to expect any improvement in the health sector from the government. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his adviser on health Dr Faisal Sultan had made a wrong decision by imposing MTI Act at Pims.

The government will have to withdraw it, he said. A representative of the protesting medical practitioners said that they were actually fighting for the rights of the poor patients. The Act, he said, gives incentives to doctors to work as consultants at a public health facility. He reminded that as per the MTI Act draft employees who opt for private practice within the premises of the hospital, clinics, imaging facilities and laboratories of Pims will get more salary, bonuses and benefits as the board may approve. Those who do not opt for private practice shall not be entitled to any increase in salary or bonuses.

All patient billing shall be done only by the hospital, clinic, imaging facility or laboratory and the professional fee component shall be returned to the consultant. Subsequently, it is generally believed that instead of free or nominal fee, people will end up paying consultancy fee at Pims. However, the Ministry of National Health Services spokesman on Friday said that uninterrupted free quality medical services will be provided at Pims to incoming patients even after the implementation of MTI Act.