After eight years, PIMS cardiac surgery dept receives first payment

Sources say the amount allocated for the project will now be insufficient.

ISLAMABAD:

The cardiac surgery department in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) might still see the light of day.

Eight years after its initiation and three years since its proposed deadline, the government recently released the second instalment of Rs1.7 million for the Rs1.24 billion project. The government had earlier released Rs300 million, sources in the hospital said.

A Pims official said while the funds released by the government are a “blessing” for the people associated with the department, there is no information on how they will be utilised.

The official said that the amount was allocated for the department in 2003, however considering the current inflation will now be insufficient as there has been a phenomenal increase in the prices of machines and other equipment in the past eight years.

The official said the proposal of the project was already revised few years back and now, as per the rules, it cannot be revised again. “Now, there is no possibility of further increase in the allocation and all the purchases and payments will be done within this limited amount.”

The hospital had initiated construction of a building for the department with the first instalment, which was completed in 2008. Apart from the building, the department has no equipment or machinery installed.

A senior doctor at Pims, requesting anonymity, said “no one knows the fate of this much needed new cardiac department”, which will provide services not only to the residents of twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi but also to Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pims Executive director Prof Mehmood Jamal said that due to the delay in the release of funds there has been a delay in making the cardiac surgery department functional. He said that the staff will be given their salaries and the required equipment will be procured for the department “soon”. The department’s staff have demanding regularisation and payments of salaries since the past eight months.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2011.