ISLAMABAD: Doctors are supposed to know the importance of hygiene but their cafeteria at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) gives an opposite view.

The doctors’ cafeteria has an unclean kitchen where doctors are served meals or tea in broken crockery. Water is provided in plastic bottles and spices are kept in dirty containers.

The condition of stove and its nearby counters seemed like they had never been cleaned.

Doctors advise almost every patient, facing infection and stomach problem, to eat hygienic food cooked in a clean environment.

But a visit to the cafeteria showed that the doctors also eat in an unclean environment. The kitchen was not only covered in filth but there was no proper arrangement to store spices, tea, sugar and other edible items.

The utensils, used for cooking, had rust and the boxes of sugar and spices were uncovered.

A doctor, who was sitting there but was not authorised to speak on record, told Dawn that he was aware of the situation but had no choice.

“The majority of the doctors don’t want to eat from the cafeteria but as they usually stay in the hospital for 48 hours so it is not possible for them to stay there without eating as we cannot go out of the hospital because if we are found absent during emergency situation, we have to face the music,” he said.

“So we have to ignore all the advice we give to the patients and eat from the cafeteria. We have informed the management a number of times but our complaints fall on deaf ears,” he said.

“In some departments, doctors have made arrangements to prepare tea on their own but the majority of the doctors come to the cafeteria to find something to eat and after that they also have tea there,” he said.

Mohammad Rizwan, an attendant of a patient who was sitting there, said he was aware that unhygienic food was served in the hospital.

“I am attending to my father admitted in the hospital and whenever I get tired I just come to the canteen and have a cup of tea,” he said.

“It is the job of the hospital management to ensure quality food and cleanliness in the canteen. What can we expect in a country where rulers prefer to go abroad for treatment,” he said.

Vice Chancellor of Pims Dr Javed Akram agreed that the standard of both cafeterias was very poor and admitted that he had received a number of complaints in this regard.

“In fact, we have cancelled the contract of the contractors of both cafeterias after litigation. It took three years to get decision in our favour and now we have decided to give both cafeterias on build operate and transfer (BOT) basis for three years so that the contractor should renovate the cafeterias and give it a new look. The contract will be cancelled if hygiene is not ensured,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2016