‘Reversal of legislation to imperil PIMS reforms’

Islamabad:The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) management has feared that the reversal of the Federal Medical Teaching Institutes Act, 2021, will jeopardise the health system reforms in the public sector, including this largest government hospital in the capital city.

According to the PIMS bosses, if the FMTI Act is withdrawn, the employment of the 300-plus staff members recruited by the hospital, including faculty members, doctors, members of management, nurses, and others, will be at risk.

Also, the proposed move threatens the recruitment of doctors and management specialists from all over the country and abroad like those who joined the hospital leaving their secured and attractive jobs after the guaranteed service protection in the FMTI Act, 2021.

They said revoking all actions and decisions by the PIMS board of governors (BoG) would have serious and interminable implications for reforms.

"The proposed repeal of the FMTI Act will halt the progress of reforms made by the BoG to further the cause of patient care," a senior PIMS official told 'The News'.

He said the FMTI system granted autonomous status to the PIMS governed by its BoG under the patronage of the federal government, so the talk of the hospital's privatisation was misleading and baseless.

The official said the FMTI system had brought efficiency to the affairs of the hospital through quick decision-making for its management by the BoG, liberated the public sector healthcare facilities in Islamabad from the autocratic hurdles, red-tape, and unnecessary delays, and improved patient care through the specialised clinical services.

He said after the enforcement of that law, the hospital hired new specialised doctors and faculty members, began building a new specialised emergency services block of international standards, strengthened nursing services, and formulated academic councils and a clinical executive board.

“The FMTI System guarantees protection to the civil service status of PIMS employees, has brought a modern management structure as a corporate model for all its specialised services with an interest of a result-oriented approach, and assigns the relevant role to the relevant professionals like doctors the patient care, faculty the teaching and training, and management specialist the non-clinical support roles. Also, nursing becomes a dedicated division,” he said.

The official said merit, transparency, and responsibility with accountability were also ensured at PIMS by the board.

He said the board also hired senior faculty for the PIMS-attached Federal Medical College, which excelled in the region under the FMTI system and got a 97.6 per cent pass rate in the National Licensing Examination by the regulator PMC besides maintaining the highest merit for postgraduate and undergraduate induction in the last one year.

The official said the FMTI system also led to the introduction of a performance monitoring system through Google Maps, efficient disaster management, and a low death rate in the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.