The error-prone Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine of Doon hospital broke down again on Thursday forcing patients to suffer. Interestingly the machine has broken down twice in span of two months.
The Head of Department (HOD) of radiology at Doon hospital, Dr Yatindra Singh told The Pioneer that the machine is not functioning due to the leakage of the helium gas. He said that the Philips Company which has installed the machine and holding its maintenance contract has been informed about the problem. Dr Singh expressed hope that the maintenance team would fix the problem in few days.
The 1.5 Tesla MRI machine was installed at the biggest hospital of the State in the year 2009 at cost of Rs7 Crores. The machine was operated for a period of five years by a private player ‘Mahajan Imaging Private limited’. The machine was handed over to the Doon hospital after the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the private player was over last year. The machine has malfunctioned four times since it was handed over to the hospital authorities.
Incidentally the leakage of helium gas has become a perennial cause of trouble for the machine. The machine faced similar problem in the month of January and May last year and in the month of March this year. It is learnt that the medical health and family welfare department has to spend a sum of about Rs25 lakhs each time the machine breaks down due to helium leakage. The helium gas is not produced in the country and has to be imported. More than 25-30 patients avail of the benefit of MRI machine of Doon hospital per day. These patients are now facing problems as machine is not functional and many of them are forced to take services of private MRI centres who charge hefty fees from them.