PESHAWAR: Patients hit as 6 X-ray plants out of order
By Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR, April 10: Patients have been hit hard by out of order X-ray plants at the Hayatabad Medical Complex, doctors and technicians say.
All the six X-ray machines were out of order, a doctor said, adding that four of them had been in disuse since July 2003, while the remaining two had developed faults earlier this month.
Criticizing the apathy of the hospital's administration, he said that it had taken no action despite having repeatedly been requested to repair these machines, causing the patients to suffer.
"Only CT and MRI scans are carried out at the hospital. Patients are forced to go to private clinics for X-rays," one of the technicians said. He said that they used to conduct 250-300 X-rays on a daily basis, when the machines were operational.
Another doctor working in the hospital's gastro-enterology ward said that most of their patients needed Ba-meal test, which needed experienced hands. But because of the malfunctioning machines, even patients in serious conditions needed to be shifted to clinics outside the hospital's premises.
He said that patients had to pay exorbitant charges and reports obtained from outside clinics were not reliable, adding that on the contrary, patients did not have to pay a single penny when these machines were operational.
"We have borrowed a small machine from the Lady Reading Hospital, but it is not even capable of meeting 10 per cent of the requirements of the hospital's emergency patients," a technician, said.
Another doctor said that these machines had not been serviced since they were purchased in 1996. He added that manufacturers stipulated that these machines should be serviced regularly at six-month intervals.
"The administration seems totally oblivious to the situation ... The radiology department generate about a million rupees from MRI, ultrasound and CT scans every month," a doctor, said.
He said that both the CT and MRI scanners had developed some faults, which were corrected soon, because these machines generated the bulk of the revenue generated from this department.
A technician said that most of them sit idle, because "there is no work."
"We are here to operate the machines, but they are out of order. But we still come punctually at 8am and leave at 2pm," he said.
A young man at a medical ward said that he had carried his father on his back to an X-ray clinic situated at a considerable distance from the hospital. He said that he had to pay Rs200 for the X-ray.
No fee was charged from patients admitted to any of the hospital's wards while people coming to the OPD paid half as much as they paid at any private clinics.
Patients are not the only ones, who suffer because of the malfunctioning X-ray machines; about a dozen trainee medical officers suffer, too. "How can we learn when the X-ray machines are out of order. The sole fluoroscope - a machine used to conduct Ba-meal tests on patients with stomach problems - is out of order, too," a trainee said.
He said that students had also requested the Postgraduate Medical Institute to help repair of the Fluoroscope, but their request had not been heeded as yet.
The abolition of the share of doctors and supporting staff by the government from users' charges since Oct 17, 2003 had wreaked havoc on the investigative departments in the public sector hospitals.
The staff, which drew its share from the user charges, also took care of the machines. They repaired these machines from the money they generated through users' charges, but now the staff had also lost interest.
"The share given to the hospital staff from users' charges is 60:40 (government:staff) since 1940. It is still enforced throughout the country, including military hospitals, but the NWFP government has withdrawn it," said a doctor.
