The committee met here with Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani in the chair at the Parliament House on Wednesday and discussed issues related to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), completion of western route under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by December 2016 and other issues.
Durrani asked the additional secretary of the Interior Ministry and secretary Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) to prepare a comprehensive reforms policy regarding public hospitals of Islamabad as well as other parts of the country and submit a report with the committee within three months.
The secretary CADD told the committee that the PIMS and Policlinic hospitals are overburdened. He said that over 8,000 to 10,000 patients are being treated per day in outdoor patient departments and over 2,000 to 3,000 patients are admitted in PIMS. He said that many patients come from out of Islamabad, including Rawalpindi, Kashmir, Peshawar and other parts of the country.
Deputy Executive Director PIMS, Dr Anjum Javed told the committee that there are 1,149 beds in the PIMS. He said that extension of infrastructure of the PIMS to increase number of beds in all exiting wards is not possible due to its specific structure. However, he said that the PIMS has taken a number of steps to improve the health facilities.
Answering a question, he said that there are six x-ray machines and one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine in the PIMS.
Agha Shahzaib said that thousands patients are being treated in the PIMS but there is only one MRI machine. He said that the committee recommends the ministry to install more MRI machines in the PIMS. Dr Anjum Javed said that PC-1 would be prepared for more installation of MRI machines and it would soon be submitted to the Planning Commission. He said that there is a need to construct four more hospitals like PIMS in the federal capital to alleviate burden of patients in the PIMS and Polyclinic.
The members of the committee said that the population is increasing day by day but there is lack of health facilities in public hospital, particularly at district and tehsil levels. They said that there is a need to improve the health facilities in the hospitals of rural and urban areas to avoid burden and pressure on the hospitals of big cities. The committee recommended for preparing a comprehensive reforms policy to improve the health facilities at hospitals.
Responding about completion of western route under the CPEC, the minister for planning, development and reform told the committee that route from Quetta to Gwadar had been completed in November 2016. He said that now the people reach from Quetta to Gwadar in eight hours, while earlier they used to reach in two days. However, he said that construction work is underway on the road from Hakla to Dera Ismail Khan. He said that the road would be completed in this year.