ISLAMBABAD: Over 50,000 patients visited the evening outpatient departments (OPDs) at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in the last eight months. Though the arrival of patients at the evening OPDs is not very impressive, it has reduced the burden on morning OPDs.

The OPDs in the evening were started on the instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“Last year, PM Shehbaz Sharif had directed his Health Coordinator Dr Malik Mukhtar to start the OPD in evening hours. With the efforts of Executive Director Pims Professor Dr Rana Imran Sikander, the OPD in the evening hours was started in April 2024 from which a total of 55,377 patients have benefited till now,” Pims spokesperson Dr Mubashir Mushtaq Daha said.

He said a total of 859,000 patients benefited from OPDs in the morning hours since April last year.

He said 500,000 patients were brought to the hospital since April last year for emergency treatment. Since the start of evening OPD services, medical facilities were provided to 3,309 patients in April last year and to 7,234 patients in May. Similarly, the number of patients was 6,394 in June, 7,074 in July, 9,943 in August, 8,594 in September, 7,740 in October, 5,193 in November, and 5,700 in December,” he said.

He claimed that the hospital was providing best possible treatment to the patients.

When asked why there was a huge difference in terms of number of morning and evening patients, Dr Daha explained that Pims gets almost 80 per cent patients from out of the city such as AJK, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab.

“People from far-flung areas prefer reaching the hospital in the morning and going back during the daytimes. However, receiving over 50,000 patients at the evening OPD has reduced the burden on morning OPDs,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2025