Patients suffer as PIMS doctors go on strike against MTI Act

The patients at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Wednesday heavily suffered due to strike by hospital medical and paramedical staff against Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) Act. The PIMS staffers gathered outside administration block of the hospital and chanted slogans against the said legislation besides forcefully shutting down Out Patient Department (OPD) from 9 to 11 am. The protestors then headed towards the National Press Club in the form of a rally. They announced that if the authorities did not consider their demands they would shut the OPD completely. As per information collected by Daily Times, the OPD did not resume after 11am due to non-availability of medical and paramedical staffers in their respective departments. The sudden closure of the OPD shocked such patients who arrived at the hospital from far-flung areas of the region for different kinds of treatment and having no prior-information regarding strike in the hospital which ultimately also caused suffering of these wretched patients. The PIMS administration, however, played little smartly and started issuing the OPD slips at 7am and it managed to issue the slips to a significant number of patients of different departments before 9am. Those who have been issued slips from the front desk were successfully treated at their relevant departments. The action provided relief somehow to some chunk of patients. According to the document seen by this scribe, some 1500 patients were treated before the start of the strike in the morning. The document stated that generally on average 3600 patients received treatment on a daily basis. The protesters, on the other hand, threatened that if the government did not review their demands, they would continue their protest. Representatives of the self-created Grand Health Alliance (GHA) which consisted of professors, consultants, medical officers, nurses, paramedics and gazetted and non-gazetted employees of the hospital were major characters behind the whole strike. They demanded that the MTI Act should be repealed. “We will not accept any amendment to the Act as we believe that the PTI government was misguided over the MTI and it has created problems for both the medical fraternity and patients,” they claimed. In November 2020, President Dr Arif Alvi promulgated the MTI ordinance suggesting that the hospital will be run through a board of governors (BoG). According to the ordinance, the BoG will deal with all affairs of PIMS. The BoG members were appointed and notified by the Ministry of NHS on the recommendation of a search and nomination council. Though employees protested against the Ordinance, it sailed through the parliament. The MTI ordinance turned to the MTI Act after going through prescribed procedure. On the other hand, a dissident lawmaker of the PTI and Member National Assembly (MNA) Noor Alam Khan who has moved a bill in the NA to repeal the MTI. The protesters further demanded that the NHS ministry and the government should own it and play its role to get it passed from both houses of parliament. According to a draft of the bill submitted by MNA Khan, PIMS was established in 1985 as a tertiary care hospital/research centre. The institute comprises nine components – five hospitals and four teaching institutes such as Islamabad Hospital, Children Hospital, MCH, Burn Care Centre, Cardiac Care Centre, College of Medical Technology, College of Nursing, School of Dentistry and Quaid-i-Azam Postgraduate Medical Centre. “The institute was working smoothly and enhancing the services regularly but during the previous regime the status of the institute was changed from an attached department of the federal government to an autonomous body i.e. federal MTI due to which the ailing humanity and the federal government servants are suffering a lot its services are deteriorating day by day,” it stated. “Keeping in view the above, it is proposed that the Federal Medical Teaching Institutes Act 2021 (Act No XII of 2021) may be repealed and the department may be declared as an attached department of the ministry of NHS for its smooth functioning,” it said. A senior official of the hospital’s ever new protest and strike culture not only spoiled its smooth functioning and reputation but also caused ultimate suffering of the patients, adding that some doctors and paramedical staffers of the hospital are more active in politics instead of their basic duties. “;This mind-set should be changed,” he suggested. He stated that these so-called leaders demoralized the young doctors’ to who are passionate to work and serve the people.