PIMS – Largest hospital in Islamabad privatised amid protests

ISLAMABAD – The government has announced to privatise Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital, one of the largest local tertiary care government hospitals in the federal capital, in accordance with the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) Ordinance.

This means the patients visiting the hospital for check-ups and tests will be charged fees equivalent to those of other private hospitals instead of the nominal fee that was being charged before.

PIMS’ employees have been protesting to abolish the MTI Ordinance for the eighth consecutive day now.

They have announced another protest for tomorrow outside the Islamabad Press Club to which the Islamabad Unions have also been invited to participate in.

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (P.I.M.S) is one of the largest local tertiary care government hospitals providing a vast array and diversity of health services and advanced sub specialties including one of the state of the art Nephrology department.

Its Islamabad Hospital (IH) is the major component of PIMS. It is a 592-bed hospital, and it has 22 medical and surgical specialties. The main objective of IH is to provide medical facilities to the community of Rawalpindi/Islamabad as a National Referral Hospital for Northern areas Azad Jammu and Kashmir NWFP and Northern area of Punjab. Also, Children’s Hospital is an important component of PIMS. It caters to the need of primary health care for the whole area through preventive and curative approaches.