With the authorities at the associated hospital of Doon Medical College (DMC) planning to make more space in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) chamber so that it conforms to the Medical Council of India (MCI) norms, the chances of resumption of the MRI facility in the hospital within the next fifteen days appear bleak. To make the matter worse, the magnet assembly of the error prone machine is yet to arrive in the State capital.
It is learnt that the hospital authorities are now planning to make more space in the MRI chamber so that it meets the requirements of the MCI. The chamber at present is 7 feet wide and the radiology department wants to make it spacious by making it 8 feet wide. The Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital Dr K K Tamta accepted that more space would be added inside the MRI chamber by demolishing a side wall. He claimed that the component needed (magnet) of the machine is expected to reach the hospital in one or two days. Even if the machine is repaired in this week upon arrival of the magnet, the reconstruction of the chamber is expected to take at least 15-20 days.
The associated hospital of the DMC is the only facility in Dehradun and nearby districts where facility of MRI is available in a government centre. But, this machine is non functional since March 09 this year, causing problems to large number of patients. It is worth mentioning here that the important machine has a habit of playing truant with the patients as it developed snags three times in last year and has broken down twice this year. The engineers of the Phillips India limited which installed the machine and also had a 10 year maintenance contract decided to change the magnet of the machine. The hospital authorities are claiming that the magnet is exported from the Netherlands from where it is on its way to Doon.
The delay is resurrection of machine is causing problems to the patients who have to cough up extra money at private hospitals for the important diagnostic test. More than 25 MRI are done on an average in a day in the hospital at a subsidized rate. The cost of an MRI in the hospital is only Rs 3500 and the poor patients do not have to pay anything for MRI here. The private centres charge about Rs 7000 to 10000 for an MRI scan.