ISLAMABAD: No new ventilator was purchased for one of the leading hospitals of the country - Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) - in the last five years, the National Assembly was informed on Friday. During this period, the country also witnessed an outbreak of Covid-19.
This revelation was made during the question-hour session in the National Assembly on Friday, when Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel, in his written reply, told the house that no new purchase was made during the last five years.
In response to a question asked by MNA Sikandar Ali Rahoupoto, the minister further said Pims had 76 ventilators, out of which 66 were functional. Out of the 10 non-functional ventilators, seven required replacement of parts and three were obsolete models whose parts were not available.
Sharing details of the availability of ventilators in Polyclinic, the minister stated that the hospital had 56 functional ventilators whereas 12 were dysfunctional.
There are only 124 functional vent machines in Islamabad hospitals, minister says
Mr Patel said 20 ventilators were purchased under the project ‘Strengthening of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Federal Government Polyclinic hospital’ while 24 ventilators were received from NDMA and the UNHCR during Covid-19.
Similarly, the minister said the Federal Government Hospital in Chak Shahzad had two ventilators and both were functional whereas there were no ventilators in the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM).
In total, the above mentioned government-run hospitals of Islamabad had only 124 functional ventilators, which catered to patients not only of the capital city - which had over 2.2 million population as per the 2017 census - but also to those coming from other cities, the minister said.
Pims and Polyclinic are overcrowded health facilities which are visited not only by locals but also by patients from Kashmir, Murree, Galiyat, Rawalpindi uptil Jhelum.
In response to another question, the health minister, in his written reply about reasons for not starting work on Polyclinic extension, said the project titled ‘Establishment of Federal Government Polyclinic in G-11/3, Islamabad’ was approved by the Central Working Party at the cost of Rs9,913.730 million on Nov 29, 2021 with [completion
period] duration of three years (commencing from start of work).
He said the Infrastructure Development Authority of Punjab (IDAP) Lahore was the executing agency and the health ministry was the sponsoring agency for the project on turn-key basis.
“The Chinese contractor M/S CCECC-Salman Joint Venture had won the international tender floated by IDAP. Work could not be started due to some differences in drawing and field demarcation by the CDA, as indicated by the IDAP team.
The CDA team revisited the site and final demarcation was conveyed,” the minister said, adding that a letter of commencement was issued on March 21, 2023.
“The field team of the contractor have been mobilised and work on site has commenced. The contract has been signed between the contractor and IDAP and excavation work has been initiated by the contractor,” Mr Patel said, adding that the IDAP had conveyed that the project would be completed within three years subject to provision of adequate funds.
Published in Dawn, July 22th, 2023
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