Over-crowding of patients, rude behaviour of staff, inadequate health facilities and unhygienic conditions are the norms in government-run hospitals in the federal capital.
Business Recorder visited three main government-run hospitals in Islamabad to find out what the facilities poor patients are receiving at these hospitals. During the visit it was noted that only Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS) has MRI and CT scan facility, while other two major hospitals are without CT scan and MRI machines.
A cursory visit to these hospitals would reveal weary looks in patient's eyes, visible agony on their attendants faces as if they were forlorn and helpless in the whole wide world. Khursheed Ahmed, who brought his father from Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, for treatment said that staff at PIMS was sending him to one corner to another for two weeks but now he was going back to his home town without his father's treatment as he has no money left.
Some of these emotions may arise due to the severity of the afflictions but a lot may be because of the pathetic conditions at the hospitals and behaviour of the doctors and para-medical staff, that add up to the patients' woes.
To minimise the sufferings of the masses the federal government at PIMS has started evening shift at the Out Patient Department (OPD), keeping in view the patients' burden in the morning.
Due to heavy load at the OPD in daytime and limited hospital timings, several patients, who come from far-flung areas of the country, face several problems and fail to get consultation from the doctors, therefore government has started evening shift, said an on-duty medical officer at PIMS.
They said unlike medical practices abroad where one doctor examines five to seven patients in a day, here at the PIMS each doctor has to examine around 100 patients daily at the OPD.
It was revealed during the visit that at Capital Development Authority (CDA) Hospital and Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital there is no CT scan and MRI machines as a result poor patients are forced to at least spend Rs 10,000 on private labs.
A doctor at Polyclinic Hospital told this correspondent that recently the government has approved a grant of Rs 35 million to upgrade 17 dispensaries of Polyclinic as well as approved 1 CT scanner and 1 MRI machine for Polyclinic.
Moreover all the three main public hospitals are short of medical and paramedical staff as even in PIMS to conduct PFT tests only one person is available.
According to officials the government has decided to create 100 new positions of medical officers at the Polyclinic hospital where thousands of federal government employees including senior officials are treated.
The government has decided to construct a 1,200 beds hospital in Islamabad to meet the longstanding demand of the residents of the city as well as to accommodate the increased concentration of people from adjoining areas.