ISLAMABAD, July 25: The newly-appointed executive director (ED) of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Friday vowed to make the institute a true centre of excellence.

“Looking forward, improving the image, merit, efficiency and dedication are our guiding principles in raising the standard of the institute and providing quick and immediate services to the patients,” Dr Syed Fazal-i-Hadi said at a press conference.

He said no grouping or politicking by the staff members would be tolerated in Pims and harmonious intra-departments relations would be established.

Sharing the details of the changes introduced by him, he said, as a first move, we dropped the number of assistant directors and sent them to their respective departments. The step was taken to reduce huge spending on them and utilize their professional skills for the patients instead of wasting energies in administrative tasks.

He said the presence of senior doctors would be ensured in OPD and action would be taken against those found absent from their duties. He said in this connection, surprise visits would be conducted.

I have instructed the doctors and other staff members to “show courtesy” to the patients and “communicate” with them, Dr Hadi said. Now every patient would be received with a smiling face and would be given immediate service instead of letting them languish in the hospital, he added.

He said serious patients would not have to wait for admission to the hospital, but would be admitted within an hour in the respective wards.

He said Rs55 million had been allocated to provide life- saving drugs to the patients in the wards. He said shelters would be built within three to six months to accommodate the relatives of the patients.

As to the provision of equipments in the hospital, he said: “State of the art equipment would be provided on priority basis in all the departments.”

Giving details of the project-wise budget allocation for the year 2003-04, he said Rs12.771 million was allocated for the upgradation and renovation of the institute. We are particularly focussing on hygiene and cleanliness, he added.

Similarly Cardiac centre and Safe Motherhood (MCH) would be built at the cost of Rs10 million and Rs5 million, respectively.

The burn unit, much needed in the capital, would be established in Pims with the allocation of Rs30 million in one and a half year.

Dr Hadi said Rs4 million would be spent on in-country training programme, safe management of new-born infants for children hospital in the institute. He said Quaid-i-Azam Postgraduate College would be set up with Rs39 million after the court ruling. He said the total attendance of the patients in the year 2002 stood at over half a million.

He appealed to the citizens to avail the services at the emergency ward only in critical conditions so as to lessen its load. He said patients with minor diseases approached emergency ward when they could really get the treatments at OPD. He said total 125,059 patients turned up for emergency treatment in 2002. We are in peace times not at war. This huge number is startling, Dr Hadi said.

He asked mediapersons to pinpoint the flaws in the managements and pledged to eliminate all hindrances being faced by patients. He said both the health minister and secretary were keen to improve the quality of services in the institute and so far they had been very encouraging.