ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: The capital city’s biggest centre for the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities is facing shortage of about 200 medical professionals as the ministry of finance has ignored its request for filling the much-needed posts, it has been learnt.

The National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM) was established by former military ruler Ziaul Haq through a presidential ordinance in 1988. Initially, it was known as National Institute of Handicapped.

When the hospital became operational in 1996, it was placed under the administrative control of the defunct ministry of welfare and social education. In the year 2001, the administrative management of the centre was shifted to the now defunct ministry of health but after the devolution the hospital is functioning under the ministry of Capital Administration and Development (CAD), said one official.

According to an administration wing official, the hospital located at G-8/2 is dealing with about 500 out-patients on a daily basis.

“After the devastating 2005 earthquake, the hospital expanded its services from 60 to nearly 160 beds and since then the number of in-patients has been rising,” added the official.

A senior physician at the hospital, refusing to share his name, added: “We are the premier rehabilitation institute for persons with disabilities but the hospital is without a rehabilitative specialist, mandatory for institutions like this.”

“Imagine the pain faced by the paraplegic patients when we refer them to the urology department of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) where they are not even priority since the patient load is very high there and these patients have to suffer double misery - physical movement and lack of attention.”

The physician explained that paraplegic patients are those who mainly suffer from complete paralysis of the lower half of the body, including legs, often due to damage caused to the spinal cord.

“These patients are on wheelchairs and need assistance of urologists since they have severe pain during urination as their lower body part never responds to brain and needs continuous consultancy but we have no urologist here.”

Farzana Mehtab, a 33-year-old patient at the NIRM, who hails from Bhara Kahu, told Dawn: “A number of medical services provided by the hospital are fair but the worst part of my life is when I have to move out on a taxi once in a week and shuttle between NIRM and Pims for getting treatment at the urology department.”

But the story of agony and pain suffered by of the patients is never ending since it is the red tape of the bureaucracy which bars the institute from hiring the critically-needed physicians and other medical professionals.

Another physician explained: “The hospital has no orthopedic surgeon but still we are trying to manage the load. Besides, paramedical staff and even technicians are needed to facilitate the patients.”

He added that besides orthopaedic surgeons and urology physicians, the key post of neurosurgeon was also vacant.

When approached, an official at the establishment division said: “We have heard about the matter from the NIRM management and gave an approval to fill 87 posts on an emergency basis but the finance ministry refuses to allocate and approve the needed funds.”

However, secretary ministry of CAD Riffat Shaheen Qazi said: “I will go out of the way and take up the matter with the secretary finance, Abdul Wajid Rana.”

She claimed that she would prepare a summary in a few days and direct the management of the hospital to hire the needed human resource on contractual basis and once the finances are approved the health professionals should be inducted on a permanent basis.”

Ms Qazi added: “NIRM management will be giving me a presentation in a few days and as soon as they highlight these issues, I will address each one of them.”

Despite repeated attempts, the spokesman for the ministry of finance Rana Asad could not be contacted for comments on the development.