ISLAMABAD: Following reports that jailed PTI founder Imran Khan could not undergo a heart scan during a visit to the hospital last week, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) said on Tuesday that its CT machine “remains functional and continues to support diagnostic services”.
When Imran was brought to Pims last week for an eye procedure and other diagnostic examinations, doctors recommended a CT coronary angiography (CTA), but hospital staff reportedly said the facility was unavailable.
After undergoing other tests, he was subsequently shifted back to Adiala Jail without the CTA, which can help detect coronary blockages and assess the risk of a heart attack. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also took notice of the non-functional CTA facility at Pims and constituted an inquiry committee to determine the facts.
Sources had earlier told Dawn that the Cardiac Centre’s conventional angiography facility at Pims was different from a CTA. While conventional angiography involved inserting a catheter into a blood vessel, a CTA was performed using a CT scanner.
In the statement issued on Tuesday, the Pims administration said, “[The] CT machine, installed in 2022, remains functional and continues to support diagnostic services.”
It said that “imaging investigations are undertaken regularly on the basis of clinical assessment, specialist advice, patient-safety considerations and prescribed medical protocols”.
“The use of a particular imaging procedure should be viewed within its clinical context and should not be interpreted unnecessarily,” it said.
A senior doctor at Pims, who wished not to be named, told Dawn that around a dozen CTAs had been conducted before the statement was released.
After reports regarding the failure to conduct the test had emerged, the PTI had reiterated its demand to move Imran to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad without any delay — which the Supreme Court had also directed on August 18.
PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram also cited details submitted to the court, saying a medical board constituted by the government had examined Imran on August 10 while a Pims cardiologist had already recommended the test for him on August 1 due to fluctuating blood pressure, palpitations, headaches, restlessness and the potential risk of cardiac complications arising from his age and prolonged isolation.
“Even the government’s own doctors considered this diagnostic test necessary,” he said.
“Yet, when Imran was taken to Pims, the procedure was not performed. Hospital officials claimed that the required facility was unavailable, despite the presence of a functional CT scanner in the radiology department capable of conducting the test,” he alleged.
