ISLAMABAD: Work on the construction of a 16-storey medical tower at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) could not be initiated even over seven years after its groundbreaking.

The groundbreaking of the Rs2.2 billion project was performed in January 2007 by the then prime minister, Shaukat Aziz.

It may be noted that the construction of a building for the Quaid-i-Azam Postgraduate Medical College on the premises of Pims also remains incomplete even after 25 years.

Project visualised provision of healthcare facilities to citizens under one roof

As a result, the cost of the cost of the medical tower project has gone up by about fourfold.

The project was visualised to provide modern medical facilities to the citizens under one roof besides creating about 2,000 jobs for medical, paramedical and other staff.

On Tuesday, Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Barrister Usman Ibrahim was informed at a meeting that the preliminary analysis of the project had been conducted by the Infrastructure Project Development Facility of the Ministry of Finance on the basis of the PC-I prepared in 2006 and the feasibility study of the Pims National Institute of Dentistry (2009).

As per the PC-I, the medical tower would have an 800-bed hospital having 200 semi-private, 100 private and two VIP rooms. It would also have two medical and dental colleges with the approximate class size of 100 students.

The project would be executed on the basis of public-private partnership. The Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) would be the 51 per cent shareholder in it.

The minister emphasised the need to have a new hospital and medical school for the capital city.

“We need to be farsighted enough to give a healthy life to our future generation and for that such a medical facility has an important part to play. After the verification and validation by the SZABMU, the IPDF would proceed with the preparation of the relevant documents,” he said.

Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram, who also participated in the meeting, told Dawn that three months ago an audit objection was raised at a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting that in the past Rs7 million were paid to the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) for preparing the feasibility of the project. However, there has been no output so far.

“Seven years ago, the groundbreaking of Pims Tower was held but not a single practical step was taken in this regard. There are only four pages in the file of the project and nothing else, so it has been decided to contact the IPDF and other departments. After 20 meetings, now proposals to execute the project have been finalised,” he said.

Dr Akram said there would be five towers each having 23 storeys, including five basements. Four basements will be for car parking and one for services. One tower each will be for medical and dental schools and three towers will be for hospitals.

In reply to a question, Dr Akram said the land in Sector G-8, where Pims is located, is very costly, “so we are considering inviting international firms to invest in the construction of the tower.”

The project was also discussed with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar who is also of the view that international bidding should be held to increase foreign exchange and ensure quality in the construction work.

“I have contacted the Royal Free Hospital London, which is run under a trust, to cooperate in the construction of the medical colleges. Their curriculum can also be taught in the colleges. If it is materialised, we will be able to get foreign students who will pay the fee in foreign exchange. Moreover, scholarships can be offered to Pakistani students,” he said.

“Moreover, there is a proposal to float 10 per cent shares of the hospital in the stock exchange because that is how the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) will be able to monitor the whole set-up.”

He said there would be members of government and private firms in the governing board to deal with all the issues of the hospital.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2014