ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Ibrahim, 27, was on his way to Taxila in a passenger van when a trailer loaded with construction material overturned and rammed into the passenger van he was travelling in.

Ibrahim, who is an AutoCAD software expert and draws building maps, came out of the accident with a broken leg, but four other passengers were killed and five were injured in the accident on September 22 near the Sangjani toll plaza.

Ibrahim and the other injured passengers were taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and were admitted into the hospital under the no refusal policy in emergencies.

However, he was told that his leg will be operated on at least a week later due to the long waiting list. A relative of Mohammad Ibrahim’s, Mohammad Farooq told Dawn that the family had decided to take Ibrahim to a private hospital for the operation.

“An orthopaedic surgeon in a private hospital in Rawalpindi agreed to operate on Ibrahim’s leg, so we took him there and the operation was conducted. Ibrahim has not yet gained consciousness after the operation,” he said,

Patients have to wait for a vacant bed on a stretcher in hospital hallways

“Doctors have suggested we take Ibrahim to a private hospital because this one does not have an intensive care unit. We started calling various private hospitals and one in Islamabad said we will have to deposit Rs150,000 as advance for two days and that more money will be required for treatment,” he said.

Ibrahim was then taken to Polyclinic, as his family could not afford a private hospital, and was admitted there under the no refusal policy. However, Farooq said, they were told beds were not available in the surgical ICU.

“We were told that Ibrahim will be kept on a stretcher outside the ICU and to wait till a bed is vacated. We started looking for beds, but could not find any vacant beds in any of the ICU’s including surgical, medical and cardiac. Because I went there with a reference, I was told Ibrahim’s name will be put on the priority list,” he said.

Another relative of Ibrahim’s, Mohammad Zaeem said that the whole family started trying to secure a bed in any of the government hospitals in the twin cities and the patient was moved to the Holy Family Hospital after one of the family members found a vacant bed there.

A doctor at Pims, who was not authorised to speak on record, said that at times during an operation, a blood clot is formed in one of the veins and travels through the body. The patient goes into a coma if the clot reaches the brain.

Many patients like Ibrahim have faced problems due to the unavailability of beds in government run hospitals.

A resident of Skhakot in Malakand, Wajid Khan said he came to Islamabad to look for an incubator for his premature child who was born in a hospital in Mardan. He could not find a vacant incubator in Pims or Polyclinic.

Last winter, a resident of Peshawar, Imran Shah had brought five of his family members to Pims for treating the burns they had sustained in a house fire but they were not admitted at the Burn Centre due to the unavailability of beds.

However, after a protest by their relatives, the family was moved to a ward where a doctor visited them for just five minutes. Two of the patients, 30-year-old Rozina Khan and four-year-old Farman Khan had died due to their injuries not being treated.

Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said the hospital was facing problems with the availability of beds in the ICU’s due to the large number of patients arriving.

“We are increasing the number of beds in some departments including OPDs, the Children Hospital, ICUs and the Burns Centre at a cost of Rs1.5 billion and the project will take 18 months to complete,” he said.

Polyclinic media coordinator Dr Sharif Astor said that construction work on the extension of Polyclinic should be started first, rather than start building new hospitals in the federal capital, as the formalities for the project, including the PC-1, have already been completed.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2016