LAHORE: The Punjab Institute of Neurosciences (PINS), one of the largest public-sector specialised facility in the country, is plagued by shortage of basic facilities.

The health practitioners blame it on unavailability of funds and say an estimated Rs1 billion are required to purchase equipment for advanced surgeries and add other facilities to the institution. The 500-bed facility (which is part of the Lahore General Hospital) also needs human resource to meet the requirements of the patients.

An official told Dawn that the situation had gone from bad to worse after the administration took certain steps in recent times. The facility suffered a major blow after acting principal Prof Dr Ghiasun Nabi Tayyab ordered distribution of its more than 200 beds to the other wards even before completion of the PINS.

Neurosciences facility in need of Rs1bn

For the last one decade or so the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) has been headed by senior medics with neurosurgery background keeping in view the overwhelming number of brain-related surgeries, the official said. But for the first time a professor of medicine (Prof Ghias) has been given additional charge to look after the affairs of the institute after the transfer of professor of neurosurgery Dr Khalid Mahmood a few months back, he said.

Approved in 2009, he said, the project is still incomplete primarily due to shortage of funds, mismanagement and a lack of interest on part of the present administration.

The official said out of 500 beds, only 300 are working at the 10-floor PINS facility which is supposed to be made fully functional at a cost of Rs3.5 billion. Only four floors of the institute are fully functional while others remain locked. For example, the 50-bed Intensive Care Unit of PINS is non-functional, as are the eight operation theatres, he said, adding that the neurosurgeons are being forced to operate patients in the old operation theatres which have many problems.

He lamented that not a penny has been granted by the government to run this institute despite passage of nearly seven month of the current fiscal year which shows non-seriousness towards this critical specialised health facility.

During the last seven years, he said, Rs2,300 million had been utilised out of Rs3.5 billion funds allocated for the scheme. As more funds are required, patients are either being denied treatment or asked to revisit due to space problem.

The official said 847 posts were sanctioned for PINS to run it according to modern standards. Of them, he said, more than 250 staff including paramedics, nurses and other employees had been sent to the strength of other sections or wards, making things difficult for surgeons.

Similarly, he said, out of the total strength of the postgraduate trainees, nearly 40pc posts had been sent to the common pool (other departments). The official further said that as PINS was not functioning fully, serious patients visiting it for complicated brain surgeries were being treated in the six old wards.

The LGH administration vacated these wards before complete functioning of PINS creating troubles for the doctors as well as patients. These wards have been closed down by the management; some of these are locked for the last six months.

He said most surgical equipment was out of order. “The drill machines purchased for PINS are unused owing to technical issues. Also, ‘Neuronavigation system’ is dysfunctional,” he said.

The institute also has an auditorium which is not functioning because of unavailability of furniture and other paraphernalia, he said.

The health department spokesman told Dawn that three of the floors including the 110-bed emergency were functional. He said several posts had been advertised and Rs1 billion SNE had been forwarded for approval of grant.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2017