A white coat is all you need to become a doctor at PIMS!

Islamabad : Acting on complaints lodged by patients, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Wednesday nabbed a fake doctor who, in connivance with two post-graduate (PGs) doctors, had been performing night duty in the Emergency and Plastic Surgery Departments of the hospital for the past several months. While the fake doctor has been handed over to police, the two PGs, who have been scarred for life, stand suspended for six months.

Donning a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, Fida Hussain faked himself as a doctor, performing duties in the Plastic Surgery Department and Emergency of PIMS at the behest of Dr. Hassan Khan and Dr. Uzair Khan, both of them PGs in the hospital’s Department of Plastic Surgery.

Fida would dress and stitch the wounds of unwary patients, and it was as a result of complaints lodged by these very patients that the hospital administration was alerted to the situation. Some patients had lodged written complaints to the security staff, flagging their highly unprofessional handling by the fraudster.

The PIMS administration interrogated the culprit and handed him over to Police Station, Karachi Company, where an FIR was lodged against him on a complaint filed by Dr. Masoor of the PIMS Emergency Department.

In his statement recorded at the police station, Fida Hussain admitted having performed night shift duties for several months in place of Dr. Hassan Khan and Dr. Uzair Khan. He also conceded receiving Rs. 400-500 as compensation from the two PGs. Fida also used to present himself as a medical technician, and conveniently got away with supplying medicines of private pharmaceutical companies to various wards of PIMS.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of PIMS Dr. Amjad Chaudhry has constituted a three-member inquiry committee comprising Prof. Tanvir Khaleeq, head of the Department of General Surgery, Dr. Abdul Khaliq, Associate Professor of the Department of Plastic Surgery, and Dr. Amir Maqbool, Director OPD, to probe the matter. The PGs have been suspended for six months. “This act of the PGs is highly against the ethics of the profession; therefore, both the PGs may be suspended for a period of 6 months from training,” states the suspension order. The inquiry committee is expected to submit its findings within three days.