Only two radiologists are deployed in the radiology department of Doon hospital here even as the department has been handed over the additional responsibility of operating the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine. Apart from the MRI, the radiologists of the department also perform X rays, Ultra sounds and CT scans on hundreds of patients daily.

The radiology department of the hospital does about 125 X rays, 100 Ultra Sounds, 45 CT scans and 15 to 20 MRI daily. The MRI machine of the hospital was handed over to the department recently when the five year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the State Government and Mahajan Imaging Private limited ended.

The State Government had purchased the 1.5 Tesla MRI machine with an amount of `7 Crore in the year 2009 and the private firm was managing only the operational aspects of the machine.

The data of the medical and health Department reveal that the private firm was earning more profits than the State Government. The Mahajan Imaging had deployed a staff of five people for MRI which included one radiologist.

The Doon hospital, however, is yet to recruit any radiologist for the MRI machine after taking it over from the private player.  One of the staff members of Radiology department on condition of anonymity told The Pioneer that workload on the radiologists of the hospital has increased due to the MRI machine.

Due to the shortage of the staff the department is operating the MRI machine only till 2 PM while the private player used to do the MRI till 5 PM.

The Principal Medical Superintendent (PMS) of Doon hospital Dr R S Aswal told The Pioneer that most of the staff of the private operator has been retained by the hospital.

He said that Mahendra Bhandari is appointed operating head of the MRI machine while the Head of Department of radiology Dr Yatindra Singh is overall in-charge of the Machine.

It is worth mentioning here that the MRI machine of the Doon hospital is prone to regular breakdowns. In this year alone the machine has failed on two occasions on account of leakage of helium gas, resulting in loss of services to the patients and problem to the hospital authorities.

With a shortage of operating staff the safety and upkeep of the machine could be compromised and this could again lead to breakdowns of the machine in near future.