ISLAMABAD: The emergency department of the Polyclinic Hospital has been finally shifted to the premises of the hospital, whereas the federal ombudsperson has formed a team to visit the hospital in light of persistent complaints from the patients regarding mismanagement at the hospital.

The emergency department of the hospital was operational in a government accommodation for the past several years. It was a constant headache for the management to shift patients from the emergency to other wards and mobilise the staff. There was also an issue of poor communication.

Polyclinic spokesperson Dr Jabbar Bhutto told Dawn that the newly appointed Executive Director Prof Dr Shahzad Munir had directed to shift the emergency within the hospital.

“The emergency has been shifted to the children’s ward due to which the number of beds has been increased to 60 from 40 beds,” he said, adding that the children’s ward had been shifted outside the hospital.

Inspection team formed to investigate complaints of mismanagement at hospital

“It will be easier for the parents to go there and leave after getting their children examined,” he said.

Dr Bhutto said that the ECG room both for male and female patients and the emergency pharmacy had been also shifted to the emergency ward.

“Dedicated X-ray services are also provided in the emergency. Trauma and orthopaedic procedures have also been started in emergency minor operation theatre,” he said.

Dr Bhutto said in October, Polyclinic attended to more than 91,496 patients and provided all services, including medicines, lab tests, and operations. “We have focused on evening shift OPD as well for patients who cannot avail services in the morning,” he said.

Team to inspect Polyclinic

Separately, Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi has taken notice of the persistent complaints from the public against the management of Polyclinic and constituted a team to visit the hospital on Thursday (today).

The inspection team will interact with the administration officials as well as patients to find a solution to these issues. Most complaints pertained to mismanagement, non-functioning of the MRI machine, shortage of anaesthesia medicines, untrained hospital staff, sharing of beds by patients, scarce medicines, delay in verification process of medical bills, and absence of basic facilities for the patients.

It has been pointed out by the complainants that despite the availability of the MRI machine in the hospital, the facility was being denied to people on the pretext of it being faulty. The staff usually gives long dates for conducting ultra-sound and other medical tests. Similarly, thalassemia patients were not being attended to properly by the hospital staff.

Patients are required to wait for long hours for check-ups as doctors do not show up on time. The inspection team will formulate its recommendations for addressing public grievances and submit its report to the ombudsperson within one week.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2023