After the approval of necessary budget from the health directorate the engineers of the firm responsible for maintenance contract of CT scan machine of associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) have started work on repair of the machine.
The important diagnostic machine of the hospital is non functional from last one and half months due to want of funds. On Tuesday the health department released a budget of Rs 6.5 lakhs for repair of the machine. The Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital Dr K K Tamta said that the work on the machine has started and it would soon become operational.
It is worth mentioning here that the CT scan machine of the department of radiology was nonfunctional from some time. The important diagnostic machine was without any maintenance contract this year as the company responsible for it had refused to renew the contract if its pending payment of services of last year is not renewed. The health department initially refused to release the budget on the plea that the machine is now part of the medical college which is under the medical education department. Being short of budget the medical college too was not in a position to repair the machine due to which the patients suffered for more than one and half months. The private diagnostic labs were enjoying the windfall as patients of the government hospital were forced to take their services. The private centres charge Rs 4000- 5000 for CT scan while in associated hospital of GDMC the fee is only Rs 1500. Moreover the hospital conducts free CT for the BPl patients and those covered under the Mukjyamtri Swasthya Bima Yojna (MSBY).
Now on the intervention of state administration the health department has released the budget for the repair of the machine.