About 780 open posts at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, have been temporarily suspended after receiving verbal directions from the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination (MoNHSRC).
On Monday, representatives from PIMS informed the Senate’s Standing Committee on Health that the ministry had blocked recruiting to fill open positions for medical professionals such as anesthesiologists, trauma surgeons, physicians, nurses, paramedics, and other employees.
Patients were interviewed by the standing committee, which was led by Senator Dr. Humanyun Mohmand, regarding their experiences in various PIMS wards and departments.
Since it serves thousands of patients from Islamabad and the surrounding region, PIMS administrators told the committee members that the hospital has been understaffed for the previous 20 years and urged them to help with recruiting.
Dr. Rizwan Taj, dean of PIMS, informed the committee that the hospital can only offer outpatient dental operations due to a shortage of dentists and an enrollment shortfall of over 250 seats in the School of Dentistry.
Dr. Taj said to the senators that foreign-trained trauma surgeons and experts are not interested in working at the hospital since their current salaries are higher than the government. In addition, he suggested that the hospital’s management conduct professional recruitment without requiring applicants to take exams administered by the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC).
The committee members also called attention to the fact that some patients are unable to afford medical care because of the exorbitant cost of different treatments and demanded that the hospital’s management either lower their pricing or find a way to fund the patient’s care using Zakat and Bait-ul-Maal.