Set up here in 1985, the Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC) purchased a Gamma camera in 1987 at a cost of nearly Rs 45 lakh. Then, it took more than nine years to instal the camera in this only Government-run cancer hospital in 1996.
But delivering the benefits to a handful of patients, the camera was dysfunctional within three months of its installation and it was sold to a private hospital at a throwaway price.
Bringing all these facts before the Odisha High Court, an advocate of the court has filed a PIl seeking a direction to the State Government to immediately purchase a Gamma camera and other equipments for the hospital and run it inn effective way for the benefit of poor patients.
Advocate laxminarayan Sahu in his petition has alleged that some doctors of this hospital, hands in glove with private hospitals, were responsible for the delay in installation of the equipment, which was meant for diagnosis and detection of the disease at an early stage.
“Instead of giving this facility to poor patients at cheaper costs at the Government-run hospital, the doctors of AHRCC deliberately damaged the camera, thereby forcing the patients to go to private hospitals,” alleges Sahu’s lawyer Khirod Chandra Rout.
The petitioner’s counsel added that without a Gamma camera and other necessary equipments in place at the hospital, many doctors and other employees are unnecessarily getting hefty salaries every month without doing anything.
Seeking a court direction for a high-level inquiry into the AHRCC mess, the petitioner has prayed for immediate installation of necessary equipments in the hospital for its smooth functioning.