Citizens demand start of Sunday shift at PIMS OPDs

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ISLAMABAD: Residents of the Federal Capital have demanded the authorities concerned to immediately start a fully-fledged Sunday shift at the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), keeping in view the patients’ burden on working days.

According to them, there is a need to open the OPD department on Sundays due to heavy load at the on working days and limited hospital timings, several patients, who come from far-flung areas of the country, face several problems and do not get a chance to consult doctors.

They said many of these people face hardships as, despite serious nature of the illness, they have to wait for Monday as the OPD at PIMS remains closed on Sunday while the emergency department only receives different nature of patients like trauma or accident victims.

“I visited hospital’s OPD on Sunday for follow up checkup after surgery to consult my doctor but due to the closure of OPD, I had to move to emergency but the doctors refused my checkup by saying that we provide treatment to only serious patients,” Arshad Malik, a patient said.

He also complained of inadequate staff at the PIMS emergency and OPD and appealed to deploy sufficient medical and paramedical staff for delivery of better services to the patients.

When contacted, an official of the hospital said that sufficient staff has been deployed at OPDs while best medical care is being provided to patients.

He said that the hospital administration has taken several steps to ensure the provision of medical cover to all incoming patients and added that PIMS emergency services are available round the clock and on Sunday also for citizens.