ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Monday approved extension of Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) and Children Hospital at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

The project worth Rs4.5 billion will be completed in three years and 160 beds will be added to the MCH and Children Hospital.

Pims Executive Director Dr Raja Amjad Mehmood told Dawn that Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would provide Rs3.62 billion for the project and the remaining amount would be contributed by the government of Pakistan.

“As Ecnec has approved the project, Japan would soon award the tender. Extensions of the hospitals would be done on the rear sides of both the buildings,” he said.

Project costing Rs4.5bn will be completed in three years, official says

As per documents, the number of normal deliveries at the MCH increased from 3,000 per year in 1999 to 10,000 per year in 2016. The number of antenatal patients increased from 3,000 in 2000 to almost 100,000 in 2016. This increase in workload adversely affected the patient care besides putting immense pressure on staff and quality of care.

While the number of patients and emergencies kept on increasing, there was no provision in terms of space and human resource to cater to the additional patients.

The project was recommended by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Feb 19 and approved on Monday by Ecnec at a meeting chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.

Pims Media Coordinator Dr Waseem Khawaja said though the population of the capital had doubled during the last three decades, not a single new hospital was constructed after Pims, which was completed during the late 1980s.

“Moreover, we get a large number of patients from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, AJK and other areas of the country due to which the workload has increased. Though the management has been making efforts to provide treatment to every patient, still there are complaints because of lack of staff, equipment and infrastructure,” he said.

“We hope that not only infrastructure will be established but more staff would also be recruited so that proper medical treatment and facilities would be provided to the patients,” he said.

Protest at Pims

Employees of Pims on Monday held a protest demanding their service structure should be approved without any delay.

Non-Medical Staff Association President Riaz Gujjar told Dawn that there were around 2,000 non-medical staff in the hospital but their service structure could not be prepared.

“We have suffered over the years but no one has ever cared about our issues. So we held a protest so that the management would take up our issue with the Ministry of National Health Services,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2019