ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, regulations and Coordination on Tuesday received a briefing on functioning, performance and future plans of National Institute of Rehabilitation and Management (NIRM).

The committee meeting which was chaired by Prof Dr Mehr Taj Roghani raised various questions on availability of services to the incoming patients and standard of available services at NIRM.

The committee also sought details of company which conducted MDCAT test across the country.

In a briefing Executive Director NIRM Dr Shabana Saleem informed the committee members that presently the hospital was providing 160-bed facility to the patients, which was working under the Ministry of National Health Services since 2018.

She said that artificial limbs were prepared at NIRM besides other services like speech therapy. She added the hospital was extending its free services to the patients with the support of international organizations and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal.

She said that there was no trend of providing support to NIRM by international organizations in cash.

She said that steps were being taken to improve the services at NIRM. She added that the Neurology department was the need of the hour as so far no such department was operating in NIRM.

She said that the main focus of the hospital was on rehabilitation of patients. She added the hospital was offering medical services to patients related with the plastic surgeries, ENT and orthopedics.

Additional Secretary Ministry of National Health Services, Nabeel Awan assured the committee members that the government will ensure availability of senior doctors at hospitals during duty hours.

He said that the ministry will take strict action against all those doctors who were habitual of remaining absent from their duties in hospitals. He assured that all nonfunctional MRI machines will start functioning soon.

He said that the ministry was ready to purchase medical devices and machinery like MRI machines and efforts were being made to manage funds for the purpose. He added the ministry was well aware of the demands of the public hospitals and was working on these demands.

He informed the committee that MDCAT test was a computer-based examination and added that the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) tried to ensure transparency in the system.

He said that on receiving complaints from students and parents, the post-MDCAT reevaluation was conducted by Quaid-e-Azam University.

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