Islamabad - Institutional-based practice is being commenced at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences from today wherein the patients will be able to visit physicians and surgeons paying 30 per cent less fee as compared to other private facilities.
Senior consultants of various departments, including Medicine & Allied, Surgery & Allied, Gyne/Obs, Cardiology, Burns, Paediatrics along with their teams will be available from 3:00pm to 10:00pm to treat outdoor patients (OPD) and will monitor all diagnostic and medical facilities given to the patients.
The academic council of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University on March 16 had allowed the doctors to start private practice at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) to provide best medical, surgical and diagnostic treatment to the citizens of the twin cities.
According to hospital officials, about 3,000 to 4,000 patients visit different OPDs including Children’s Hospital and Maternal and Child Healthcare Centre of the PIMS daily for healthcare services from different adjoining areas as it is a leading hospital in tertiary care that serves as a national referral hospital. Overcrowding and lack of cooperation by the healthcare staff are common complaints at the hospital.
Yesterday the Vice Chancellor of SZABMU Professor Dr Javed Akram briefed the media about the formal initiation of the programme.
The courtesy centre of PIMS will have the “registration counter” for the institutional based practice and it will remain open from 3:00pm to 10:00pm. Private patients can also avail the indoor facilities in private wards of the hospital. MRI and CT-scan facility would also remain open till 10:00pm that was available till 2:00pm only before.
Prof Javed Akram said that the aim to launch the project is to divide the patient load and ensure the availability of the consultants till evening in the hospital premises so that patient can get maximum benefit and special care from the medical experts.
“The committee of institutional based practice has decided very nominal charges for the private practice after evaluating rate lists of different private institutions of the twin cities in collaboration with finance department of PIMS to facilitate the patients,” he said.
The consultants of various departments will charge somewhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 for an appointment, and 20pc of this will go towards paying staff and for other services. A shuttle service will also be started for the hospital staff and the patients at the hospital.
While answering the question about recruitment of the staff Prof Akram said that open option has been given to all medical and paramedical staff of the concerned department of PIMS to join private practice, while adding, financial matters will be monitored by the finance department of PIMS.
Dr Shazia, Chairperson Institutional based practice (IBP) committee, said that this project was the vision of Prof Akram to provide best medical consultation and treatment to every patient. She said that the programme will help minimise the patient load in morning OPD as the affording patients’ can visit PIMS OPD in evening for the treatment, as a result the poor and deserving patients will get the benefit to have good medical care in the morning due to the distribution of patient load.