Unable to bear the additional load, the ageing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital has become non functional. The machine developed snag on Friday. This machine was forced to bear additional load ever since the CT scan machine of the department of Radio diagnosis of GDMC hospital went out of order. The Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital, Dr K K Tamta, said that the machine malfunctioned due to a snag in its electrical earthing. He accepted that overloading of the machine could be a reason for malfunctioning of the machine. Dr Tamta added that the technical experts are working on the problem and the machine would be repaired soon.
The malfunctioning of the important machine has made things difficult for the patients already suffering due to absence of CT scan facility.
The associated hospital of the GDMC is only facility in Dehradun and nearby districts where facility of MRI is available in a government centre. More than 30 MRIs are done by the machine in a day. The fee of an MRI in the hospital is Rs 3,500 only while no fee is taken from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) patients. On the other hand the private centres charge about Rs 7,000 to 10,000 for an MRI scan.
Interestingly this important machine has a habit of getting broken down regularly. It has developed snags many times in past. The doctors of the hospital admit that the machine has now become obsolete.
The 1.5 Tesla MRI machine was installed at the biggest hospital of the state in the year 2009 at cost of Rs 7 Crores.
The hospital administration has requested the state government to provide a new MRI machine so that dependence on the old machine is removed.
The malfunctioning of two most important radio diagnosis machines of the hospital has hit the patients hard.
The lone CT scan machine which developed malfunctioning in last week of February has not been replaced or repaired yet. As an amount of Rs 40 Lakh was expected to the spent on repair of this important radio diagnostic machine, the hospital administration has decided to replace the old error prone machine with a modern 64 slice CT scan machine. The machine is expected to cost around Rs 6.30 crore.