PIMS Staff Threatens to Shut Down OPD

The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) staff threatened to close the outpatient department (OPD) to protest President Dr. Arif Alvi’s delay to approve a bill repealing the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) Act.
The employees took this decision in a meeting on Monday.

The bill to repeal the Act was adopted by the National Assembly on October 18 and forwarded to the President for approval, since it had previously been passed by Pakistan’s Senate. President Dr. Alvi, on the other hand, is yet to approve it.

PIMS workers argued that the President was prolonging the procedure since the MTI legislation was enacted by his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which was overthrown in a no-confidence vote in April.

According to Federal Health Alliance (FHA) Chairman, Qamar Gujjar, staff members were left with no choice but to protest and finally shut down the facility. He remarked that the entire hospital was experiencing difficulties as a result of the delay in signing the bill.

Dr. Haider Abbasi, a spokesperson for the FHA, stated that Dr. Alvi, as a dentist, should understand the needs of healthcare professionals and that it is disappointing that the bill is being delayed despite having been passed by both the NA and the Senate.

He claimed that officials appointed under the MTI legislation approached the president to request to delay the bill because they ‘wanted to secure their service’.

It is important to note that the MTI Act had declared PIMS a private institution under a Board of Directors (BoG), instead of a subsidiary under the Federal Ministry of National Health Services (NHS). The members of the BoG were appointed and notified by the Ministry of NHS. The Act was passed in November 2020 despite the protests by employees at the time.