OPD services extended to 8 o’clock in evening

Islamabad : Department of Radiology at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has extended its services for outpatient department cases till 8 o’clock in the evening and has started performing CT Scan, X-rays, Ultrasound and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) in the evening shift as well from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for OPD patients.

The Radiology Department team would provide the facilities of X-rays, Ultrasound, CT Scan and MRI to OPD patients from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily from Monday to Saturday while the procedures would be done round the clock for emergency cases as per usual protocol and policies.

According to a letter written to the Executive Director at PIMS by Head of Radiology Department Dr. Ayesha Isani Majeed, the endeavour is to expedite patient care, regulate work flow and provide expert consultant care to patients round the clock in greater public interest.

It is important that the tests including MRI and CT Scan are considered to be the most essential equipment in treating patients because of having a wide range of applications in medical diagnosis. The patients requiring the MRI facility had been suffering a lot for years because of unavailability of MRI facility in public sector hospitals of the region in evening. The MRI scan costs Rs8,000 to Rs20,000 or more at private setups while the facility in public sector hospitals is subsidized.

According to Deputy Director at PIMS, Dr. Waseem Ahmed Khawaja, the provision of diagnostic facilities at PIMS in the evening would help improving in-time management of patients even at OPD level. After availability of services in evening, the patients would be able to avoid delay in getting the diagnostic facilities including CT Scan and MRI, he said.