ISLAMABAD: Citizens on Monday complained shortage of medical and paramedical staff to handle patients at the emergency department of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
According to them, attendants have to wait for hours to get serious patients admitted to the emergency as the existing paramedical staff is not sufficient to handle the patients besides shortage of medicines. They said that mostly trainee doctors, who have lack of experience, have been assigned on duties in the emergency department.
Salim Khan, a patient, said that PIMS was a major hospital of the capital, but it has been facing severe shortage of staff at its emergency to handle daily emergencies. He said that authorities concerned should take notice of this issue and assign sufficient staff at emergency department.
Aftab Ahmad, another patient at the PIMS emergency department, said that he received injuries in a road accident and a mobile rescue team brought him here in the hospital. “Some junior doctors examined me but they left me alone on the stretcher without providing any further medical support,” he said.
“I had to wait for hours and after several requests, paramedical staff took me for a medical checkup,” he complained. Another patient Adnan Khan said that the hospital needs to hire further staff to handle emergencies timely including medical and paramedical. “It is really intolerable for badly injured patients to wait for hours when they are in urgent need of medication.”
When contacted, an official of the hospital said that sufficient medical staff have been deployed in the emergency department to serve the patients. He said that the best medical treatment was being provided to emergency patients by the medical and the paramedical staff.