KARACHI, May 20: Owing to the exorbitant charges for CT Scan facility as the Civil Hospital, majority of people bringing patients in a precarious condition to the Accident and Emergency Ward prefer to avail the service at some private facility offering 30 to 40 per cent less in charges.

The CHK charges Rs1,400 for CT Scan of any patient, including children, with head injuries and requiring the scanning. However, most of the patients are taken to private hospitals or clinics where the facility is available and charges range from Rs800 to Rs1,000. Some of them are Taj Complex, Mehran CT Scan, Blue Cross CT Scan and Tamim Diagnostic Centre.

The CHK Casualty incharge, when approached and asked to comment, attributed the difference in charges to the government’s policy and said that provincial health officials had the authority to determine the fee.

It transpired during a visit to the Accident and Emergency Centre of the CHK that a minimum of 10 patients are brought there with injuries requiring CT Scan in 24 hours.

A similar number of patients, with heart and paralysis complaints, is brought to the medical wards and advised to seek some sort of costly services for diagnosis.

It is observed that most of the patients with head injuries came from middle or lower class and cannot afford exorbitant charges of diagnostic services.

Some time ago, a Zakat office was established at the CHK to provide financial support to the needy patients requiring CT Scan. However, without assigning any reason, the powers to approve the cases for financial help was transferred to the central office of Zakat Fund, functioning at the formerly Commissioner’s House.

Now it takes approximately one week in getting such an approval though for a patient in precarious condition, every passing moment is important and a matter of life and death.

Most often, family or relatives of such a patient have to dispose of their belongings and valuables to arrange for the medical expenses in order to save the life of their loved one.

An attendant of such a patient, suggested that the provincial health department should provide free CT Scan service to the extremely needy patients.

The CHK administration’s decision to provide ultrasound facility at the X-ray Department from morning to noon has also added to the miseries of those coming to the hospital. The decision has disappointed an overwhelming number of people, especially workers, who visit the CHK in the evening to seek ultrasound facility.

They are advised by the staff to go to private concerns where charges for the service are much higher than that of the CHK.

The decision has led to an unusual rush of patients at the CHK and they are given at least one week’s time for an appointment.—PPI