Asma Kundi
An old woman, sitting outside a closed out-patient department (OPD) of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Institute (PIMS), was preparing to go back home as she was denied treatment for cold and fever because of the boycott and protest by doctors and the paramedical staff.
Sixty-year-old Zeenat Bibi, a resident of Bari Imam, a suburban area of Islamabad, was also at the hospital for treatment of fever and cold, only to find the OPDs shut. “I requested doctors to prescribe some medicine as I cannot afford private doctors but they asked me to leave,” Zeenat told World Echo while shivering due to fever and coldness.
She said that she was sitting in the sun to counter the cold she was feeling. She wondered why “the doctors were always on a strike”.
According to an official of the PIMS, up to 5,000 patients visit the hospital’s OPDs daily. He said the PIMS is overburdened and caters to many patients from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and suburban areas.
He admitted that the patients were facing trouble due to the ongoing strike of doctors and the paramedical staff. He claimed that the ongoing protest “will protect the long-term interest of poor patients”.
The Federal Health Alliance (FHA) started its protest on Monday against the implementation of the Medical Teaching Institute (MTI) Ordinance at the PIMS. Protesters, including doctors and paramedical staff, rejected the promulgation of the MTI ordinance and demanded that the government revoked it immediately.
They said the MTI ordinance has converted the PIMS hospital into a corporate entity and deprived poor patients of free treatment.
Both houses of parliament have already approved the new amended MTI bill and it is pending with President Dr Arif Alvi, who is yet to sign it.
Earlier the president approved the MTI ordinance during the Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaaf government, which the present government later amended. The earlier approved ordinance converted the three major hospitals of Islamabad, Polyclinic, NIRM and PIMS into MTI, which are being run under the board of governors.
PIMS Executive Director Dr Khalid Masood told World Echo that a large number of poor people were suffering due to the protest and they were trying to cater to as many patients as possible in emergency wards.
He said: “We invited the protesting staff for a meeting twice but they refused to talk. They have issues with the health ministry. Anyhow, the OPDs should not be shut down as poor patients who even don’t have the fare to reach the hospital suffers after they find them shut.”
