ISLAMABAD: The employees of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) have warned the government against going ahead with its plan to outsource diagnostic services in the hospital.

They demanded that permanent employees should be appointed instead of outsourcing the pathology and radiology departments to companies.

The demands were made at a meeting chaired by Shaheen Group Chairman Qamar Javed Gujjar and attended by Naveed Ahmed Azad, Mohammad Ilyas Awan, Usman Mughal, Raja Kamran, Mohammad Riaz, Mohammad Ahmed, Mohammad Saqib, Irfan Iqbal, Chaudhry Fayaz, Hasan Raza, Chaudhry Amir and others.

Addressing the employees, Mr Gujjar said the government was contemplating paying tens of millions of rupees to private companies, adding that the hospital employees would resist any move to outsource the departments.

Ministry official says committee preparing proposal for establishing 24/7 health emergency management system

Mr Gujjar also criticised the nomination of the head of a committee which would supervise appointment of employees from BPS 1 to 5.

“A person who is already facing allegations of violation in appointments in the Sehat Sahulat Programme has been appointed the head of the committee. There are a number of competent BPS 19 and 20 officers who can head the committee,” he said.

While citizens have been facing severe financial crisis, the federal health ministry is working on outsourcing the diagnostics at Pims, rural health centres (RHCs) and basic health units (BHUs) in Islamabad.

The move will put an extra financial burden on patients who are currently availing of the diagnostic services either free of cost or at nominal fees.

According to documents available with Dawn, Coordinator to Prime Minister on Health Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath visited Pims on March 29 and directed the management to construct a virtual tower for super specialties. He also ordered the opening of an evening outpatient department (OPD) and outsourcing of the diagnostics unit of Pims.

After receiving the directions, Pims Executive Director Prof Dr Rana Imran Sikander had issued letters to the departments concerned for submission of a detailed plan for outsourcing the diagnostics.

The letters written to Head of Pathology Department Dr Ahmareen Khalid Sheikh and Head of Radiology Department Prof Ayesha Isani, available with Dawn, stated: “You are hereby advised to submit detailed plan for outsourcing of diagnostic services of Pathology Department/Radiology Department of Pims as per the directives of the Honourable Coordinator to Prime Minister within two days positively.”

A senior doctor of Pims, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that the diagnostic process involved diagnosis of diseases through pathological or radiological tests.

“The facility of Health Card was introduced by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2016 in Islamabad, but later the PTI took the ownership of the scheme and provided the facility in most parts of Pakistan. During the tenure of the PDM-led government, the facility of the health card was curtailed or denied to a number of patients. Later, the caretaker government totally suspended the health card scheme for private hospitals in Punjab and further curtailed it in Islamabad due to unavailability of funds,” he said.

“Diagnostics, including pathology and radiology tests, are provided either free of cost or on nominal charges but now it seems the facility will be discontinued. We are hearing that private labs will be requested to control the lab and radiology department in the hospital. Pims has just got a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine having a market price of over Rs250 million but now it may be handed over to some private party,” he said.

The doctor said that patients will have to pay for the diagnostics. He said currently Pims charges Rs100 for complete blood picture test compared to around Rs1,000 in the market.

“Fact is that even then prime minister Shaukat Aziz in 2005-6 had announced a vertical tower at Pims but it could not be constructed till date. The incumbent government, which is already facing a severe financial crunch, cannot go for such a project. It will only discontinue existing facilities to reduce its expenditure,” he said.

However, another doctor, who seemed to be in favour of outsourcing the diagnostics, said it will expedite the process of testing and will bring credibility to tests in the hospital.

“At the moment, a number of employees don’t want to work or they misbehave with patients. However, after outsourcing the diagnostics, patients will get respect and they may have to pay less than private labs,” he said.

When contacted, a senior official of the health ministry said that the ministry had constituted a committee tasked with preparing a proposal for establishing a 24/7 health emergency management system in Islamabad, utilising the existing RHCs under a public-private model.

“The committee is assessing the current state of RHCs and their capacity, the gaps in emergency and OPD services, developing a proposal for a comprehensive plan for emergency 24/7 coverage by initially utilising the RHCs, which will act as satellite sites for Pims for emergency and OPD care, besides evaluating the feasibility of the public private model to be implemented to run these RHCs and BHUs 24/7,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2024