PIMS witnesses significant drop in patient load

200,000 patients visited hospital's OPDs as compared to 1.4 million patients last year

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad has witnessed a significant drop in the number of patients since the coronavirus pandemic broke out.

This year, only 200,000 patients visited out-patient departments (OPDs) of the largest tertiary care hospital in the federal capital as compared to 1.4 million patients last year, documents show.

Similarly, as compared to 28,000 patients last year, only 12,000 patients underwent surgeries at PIMs during the current year. Only 59,000 patients were admitted to the wards as compared to 85,000 patients a year ago.

According to the data available with The Express Tribune, the patient load has significantly dropped at the PIMS.

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According to the data, around 1.5 million people were examined at PIMS in 2018-19. However, only 247,000 patients visited OPDs in 2020-21.

The report says 480,000 patients visited the emergency department in 2020-21 as compared to 718,000 during 2018-19. Some 85,287 patients were admitted to the hospital 2018-19 while the number dropped to 59,000 in 2020-21. A total of 28,640 operations were carried out at the PIMS in 2018-19 as compared to 12,572 surgeries were carried out in 2020-21.

The pathological laboratory conducted over four million tests in 2018-19 while it dropped to 2.262 million tests in 2020-21. The radiology department carried out 388,000 tests in 2018-19 while 310,000 tests were carried out in 2020-21.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2021.