The authorities of two major Islamabad hospitals have turned a blind eye to the difficulties faced by the patients who come to these hospitals from far flung areas as the doctors continued their strike for the 20th day on Friday.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of federal hospitals is on strike against the proposed Health Personnel Scale (HPS), leaving the Outdoor Patient Departments (OPD) of hospitals ineffective.
As a result, a large number of PIMS and Polyclinic patients were suffering from negligence.
The patients, including children, women and senior citizens are searching for doctors. “My grand son got a chest infection. I went twice to PIMS and once to Polyclinic but the hospital staff refused to facilitate me due to the closure of the OPD,” said Sadiqa who had come from Noor pur Shahan.
A few patients were seen using the reference of influential people to receive immediate. A majority of the patients were seen sitting there unattended to.
The administration has, in a show of inflexibility, refused to meet the demands of those medical and non-medical staff who refused to opt for the HPS scheme. The patients are forced to go to other hospitals and receive costly treatment.
“My father had a serious accident a couple of weeks ago and lost his right leg, he is fighting the battle of life and death in a PIMS medical ward but there are no nurses to look after him properly,” said Nadeem Asghar who came from Layya.
The patients especially those who could not afford treatment from private health clinics said if the authorities concerned did not pay the attention to the issue, the situation could get worse and the patients would suffer much more.
