Overcrowded state-run hospitals in the Federal Capital for over four million population including people from other parts of the country fell short to dispense satisfactory healthcare to patients. Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and Polyclinic Hospital are the only two major government healthcare facilities available to middle class and underprivileged section of the society in Islamabad.

It was learnt that owing to extraordinary rush doctors in PIMS give six month time to patients for complex surgeries. Similarly, medicine was not available to patients forcing them to get the same from market on high prices. Sources said that around 5,000 operations related to abdomen, brain, throat and bones have been conducted in PIMS during the year 2012, of which most surgeries were of patients who were critical or in emergency.

Moreover, in some cases patients lost their lives while waiting for their turn due to shortage of state-run hospitals. When contacted, PIMS spokesperson Dr Wasim Khawaja said that extraordinary load in PIMS was the main reason behind inadequate treatment, adding that at least three hospitals like PIMS were required to dispense better healthcare facilities to the masses.

Copyright Independent News Pakistan, 2012