PIMS cardiac centre: Doctors, private firms fleece patients

Outsiders charge patients at the hospital to ‘arrange equipment’ without letting patients know about its quality.

ISLAMABAD:

Gullible and hapless patients who visit the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (Pims) Cardiac Centre are fleeced by unscrupulous elements in league with the hospital staff.

Some of the patients who visited the centre for cardiac procedures and surgeries shared startling stories with The Express Tribune. They said many ‘outsiders’, mostly representatives of private pharmaceutical and surgical firms, in league with doctors, roam around posing as hospital staff to trap patients to undergo angiography tests before undergoing a surgery or any other procedure.



Some of the victims shared receipts issued to them by the cardiac centre ranging from Rs50,000 to Rs500,000 for surgery especially the stent procedure conducted upon them. Initially they were told to arrange some money but once admitted, the centre’s staff including the doctors start bargaining.

The doctors at the centre make their best to convince the patients that the only option they have is to undergo a stent procedure.

During the bargain, Tanveer, one of the representatives Medi Systems International, a private supplier, gets payments from the patients to provide the equipment including the stents.

Tanveer, when contacted, admitted that he roams outside the cardiac centre to get payments from patients for “arranging the equipment”. When asked if he was officially authorised to supply the equipment, he denied but insisted that the equipment he provided was not available at any other shop. He admitted that he charges patients at the hospital in presence of the doctors.

When patients and their attendants insist for arranging the equipment themselves, they are spurned by the doctors and the staff, forcing them to make payments to the supplier. The patients are kept in the dark while the supplier arranges the equipment.

“Initially, I was told by Dr Shahid Nawaz Malik that I will require one stent and for that I will have to arrange Rs400,00 to Rs500,000,” Chaudhry Rab Nawaz, a heart patient, said adding that “Once the money was arranged, the same doctor told me that I’ll need two stents and demanded some more money; when I arranged the money, again I was told to arrange some more money as I would need three stents,” Nawaz said who had been handed over an enormous bill (Rs521,500) for the equipment the supplier arranged. “I don’t know whether the stents put into my body were original,” Nawaz said.

He also shared a receipt without any official stamp containing other charges. “The money received from patients must be divided between the supplier, the centre’s head and other staff, as they refuse to stamp the bill,” he said adding that when Dr Malik was asked to stamp the bill, he first refused and after an argument, just signed it.



The cardiac centre is yet to be officially handed over to the hospital by the Public Works Department following repair work.

While talking to The Express Tribune, a senior official associated with the pharmacy department said on the condition of anonymity that “the practice is prevalent almost in all departments and doctors have their shares from the suppliers”.

He said that ‘representatives’ of various drug manufacturing firms sit with heads of departments in their offices to get direct payment from the admitted patients to ensure their product/equipment is used.

“Doctors have set their commissions and the money directly goes into their pocket rather than into the hospital’s account,” he said.

Pims head Prof Javed Akram admitted that the hospital administration was fully aware of the issue and they were trying to hire registered vendors to arrange important equipment. “Soon, the hospital will make arrangements to provide stents for patients,” he said.

Another senior official at Pims said on the condition of anonymity that they had issued tenders for supplying stents, but no company has so far expressed their interest. “Yes, in the absence of authorised suppliers, unscrupulous elements take advantage of the situation,” said the official.

Akram also said that they were expecting that the centre will be officially handed over to the hospital in two weeks.

The centre, built at a cost of Rs1.2 billion, was inaugurated by former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on December 21, 2012, but the Nespak found 160 faults in construction, which were later referred to the PWD, according to Akram.

It is being run under a project funded by the Capital Administration and Development Division, the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry.

“Once fully functional, the centre is expected to perform 1,000 angiographies, 500 angioplasties, valvuloplasties, and 400 cardiac surgical procedures annually,” he said.

Nawaz, who is in the US, when asked about swindling of the patients by private firms, refused to comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2015.