'Defunct' MRI and CT scan machines raise doubts on hospital's procurement policy

The regular breakdown of the sophisticated machines installed at the Government health facilities in Uttarakhand has raised a question on the procurement policy of the Medical Health and Family Welfare department. Many of the machines installed in the Radiology, Physiotherapy and operation theatres are installed by the multinational companies and had to be imported.

It is worth mentioning here that machines like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer-assisted Tomography (CT) scan machines installed in Doon Hospital are prone to regular breakdowns since their instalments. Both these machines of the hospital have broken down twice this year alone leaving the hospital authorities red-faced. It was learnt the CT scan machine of the hospital was installed in the year 2004 by Siemens Company while 1.5 Tesla MRI machine was installed by Phillips in 2009 at an estimated cost of `7 crore. The technical in-charge of these machines, Mahendra Bhandari said the maintenance contract of CT scan was ending on June, 2016, while the maintenance contract of MRI machine is expiring on 2017.

There are two MRI and three CT scan machines in the Government hospitals of the State. The radiologists who operate these machines have regularly reminded the health directorate to replace these aging machines. Some of the medical experts are of the view that there was a possibility these companies have supplied obsolete machines in garb of new ones. The regular breakdown of these machines makes the private medical centres happy as patients are diverted to them from Government facilities making one wonder about some nexus between private hospitals and operators of these machines.

Talking with The Pioneer the DG of State health services Dr RP Bhatt accepted the department lacked technical experts and added top officials of the department were needed to be trained for intricate subjects like procurement policy and other rules and regulations.