Ajay Raina
JAMMU, July 19: Notwithstanding increase in number of trauma patients, only one CT Scan machine is functional in the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) during the past several months—courtesy the neglecting attitude of the Medical Education Department, which has not paid serious attention towards the proposal for installation of new and high-tech machine submitted about one year ago.
Official sources told the EXCELSIOR that the road accidents are taking place in different parts of Jammu region every day and maximum numbers of cases were being referred to Government Medical College and Hospital with hope of better diagnostic and other medicare facilities. But for the last over four months, only one CT scan machine is operational in the hospital as the second machine has been declared out dated and is not being put to use.
Due to the increasing work load on the operational CT Scan machine in the hospital, OPD and in-patients are facing lot of problems and they are being compelled to wait for several days to get CT scan conducted, sources added.
Any CT Scan machine has a life span of 10 years and the one which was declared obsolete around four months back had been operated for over 11 years, they said.
After witnessing the life span of the CT Scan, last year the Department of Radiology projected the requirement of new one before the hospital administration, which while justifying the requirement forwarded the proposal to the Government. But despite lapse of over one year, no action has been taken thereby creating problems not only for the emergency patients, but also for the OPD and in-patients, sources informed.
If any fault occurs in the operational CT Scan machine, the department will have to refer patients to other hospitals including Chest Disease (CD) Hospital, Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital and even Super Specialty Hospital (SSH), sources said while laying stress on early clearance of proposal for the new machine.
“Delay in the installation of the new machine in the GMC Hospital has put a big question mark on the tall claims of the Government of providing better health and medicare facilities to the patients”, they added.
Talking to Excelsior, a lady Sohana Devi of Gho-Manhasa said that she has been advised for the CT Scan test, as she was suffering from abdominal pain.
“I am waiting here for the last over two hours but still my CT Scan has not been conducted”, she added.
“Government is spending huge funds to provide better medical treatment to the patients, but cannot afford to install another CT Scan machine in this big hospital so as to cater to the needs of the patients and their valuable time”, Sohana Devi added.
When contacted Dr Ghansham Dev, Head of Radiology Department, GMC Hospital confirmed that no decision has yet been taken on the proposal for purchase of new CT Scan machine. He, however, said the process takes time and hopefully the department will be equipped with the new machine in near future.
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