PIMS hospital functioning without forensic lab

The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the largest public sector hospital in the federal capital, is functioning without a forensic laboratory to determine the causes of serious and accidental deaths.

Sources said that unqualified medical officers run the affairs of the hospital’s medico-legal department.

According to the available documents, the medico-legal department at the PIMS hospital is in a total disarray and the hospital lacks a dedicated forensic lab to determine the cause of deaths shrouded in mystery.

According to sources, post-mortem reports of serious and accidental cases are referred to Lahore for forensic tests due to a lack of skilled medico-legal officers at the PIMS hospital.

Earlier talking to the media, Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel also admitted the absence of the dedicated forensic laboratory at the PIMS hospital claiming that it will be set up shortly.

In February 2022, PIMS additional MLO sent a letter to the medical director seeking the appointment of forensic experts but no headway had been made in this regard, the sources said.

The letter unqualified medical officers were running the affairs of the medico-legal department, highlighting that none of the officers have a post-graduate degree in forensic medicine to qualify for the medico-legal officer.

Interestingly, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Hyderabad have forensic experts but the federal capital lacks lack a forensic lab and experts.

The sources said that the lack of a forensic lab and experts in Islamabad also caused the delay in timely getting the post-mortem reports of the late journalist Arshad Sharif, senior journalist Ayaz Amir’s daughter-in-law Sara Inam and Noor Muqqadam.

The sources said that lab reports of most cases and evidence often go missing in the hospital’s medico-legal department.

PIMS Director Dr Khalid Masood said that the hospital has forensic experts but it lacks machinery and a dedicated lab to put together prompt results.

He said that the government can take steps in this regard and the health minister has assured that they were working in this regard.

He said that the medical university should have a forensic lab instead of the PIMS hospital.

Sources also said that without a forensic lab for various tests, the Islamabad police are still relying on conventional investigations, which often yield inferior or compromised results.

The sources said that in cases involving forgery, sexual assault and narcotics, police struggle to conduct full investigations without the option of forensic testing.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2022.