Lack of hygiene in the lavatories at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has turned Islamabad’s largest hospital into an epicentre of diseases. The number of toilets is highly disproportionate to the strength of patients and their attendants, which makes it extremely difficult to cater to the latter’s needs.
The unhygienic lavatories have toilets filled with excrement such that it seems as if no sanitary workers have been deployed to keep the toilets clean. The lavatories emit stench and miasma around the clock making it difficult for the patients to even breathe.
There are only two lavatories for the emergency ward which are always clogged with filth. The Mother and Child Health Care Emergency Ward do not have any lavatory and the nearest toilets have been built adjacent to the laboratory in the basement.
The OPD ward located in the Cardiology Centre also faces a miserable situation on this count as it has only four lavatories, out which two are always locked as they are meant for employees’ use only. Around 10 to 12 people are usually seen waiting outside every lavatory. Even doctors have to head to public toilets due to lack of water supply arrangements in these toilets. ONLINE
Sources said over 150 sanitary workers had been employed in the hospital, but most of them worked in the houses of officers working at the hospital.
Citizens demanded the hospital management to take immediate steps for the construction of new toilets in every ward as per the requirement of the patients and to pre-empt eruption of any fatal epidemic.
