- Citizens complain of absent senior doctors at PIMS
Citizens on Friday demanded that the concerned authorities take notice of the senior doctors ‘absence during duty hours at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
According to them, patients faced several problems due to the absence of these doctors at the Out Patients Department (OPD) and other wards of the hospital.
They said that senior doctors operated their private clinics in their duty timing which was against professional norms. In their absence, trainee doctors with less experience examined patients, they added.
A patient, Shahid Ali, said, “Senior doctors avoid taking any responsibility regarding their patient as they do not spend enough time in the hospital.”
He added that senior doctors rarely visited their wards.
Another patient Salim Khan said that OPD patients mostly have to move to private clinics for proper check-up due to the PIMS’ doctors’ apathy. He added that even in case of serious medical complications, doctors at the OPD make patients wait 15 days to one month to patients for a second visit. “It seems that medical practitioners consider the hospital a picnic spot where they come to spend some time,” he exclaimed angrily.
Citizens said that due to the heavy load at the OPD during the day and limited hospital timings, several patients from far-flung areas of the country failed to get the doctors’ consultation.
They also complained of inadequate staff at PIMS’ emergency and its OPD and appealed to deploy sufficient staff including medical and para-medical personnel so the patients could get some relief.
They said at PIMS, each doctor had to examine 100 patients daily, while abroad, each doctor examined five to seven patients daily, which allowed him to give them proper attention.
A PIMS official said that over 4,000 patients visited the PIMS OPD daily for various health problems, of which 75 percent come for follow-up visits.
He said that seven to eight member doctor teams performed duties in the hospital’s OPDs including a medical officer, professor, assistant professor and post graduates, while the filter clinics had teams comprising two to three doctors.
He added that around 800 to 900 patients visited the hospital’s Emergency Ward including 400 in the main emergency, while the rest went to the Children Emergency Ward, Burns Hospital Emergency and the Mother and Child Emergency Unit.
The official informed that five to six community medical officers remained on duty in each emergency ward where 80 percent patients visited with minor diseases like coughs or headaches, while only 20 percent patients admitted in the wards had serious conditions like head injuries or heart attack.
He said that the hospital was established with the aim to provide special health services to patients with critical diseases; however, the hospital had now become a major center for all sorts of patients, which explained why sometimes patients had to wait for the doctor.