LAHORE: In what appears to be a first deal of such a scale, a private company is going to install hi-tech CT Scan machines at 20 DHQ hospitals of Punjab to provide diagnostic test facility to patients.

According to this agreement, the company -- Hitachi Ltd -- shall bear expenses of installation of all 20 CT Scan machines at approximately Rs900 million. It shall be responsible for maintenance of the equipments, hiring of all diagnostic staff, including radiologists, technicians and others. The company shall pay salary and other benefits to the staff designated to perform CT Scan tests, while the area allocated to them at the health facilities shall remain intact as government property.

The deal seems to be the government’s initiative to outsource various non-medical sections of state-run hospitals under public-private partnership.

Private firm to install machines with Rs900m, maintain them, hire staff

CT Scan is a critical diagnostic medical test that is said to be very expensive in the private sector and out of reach for a large number of poor patients.

Primary and Secondary Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan confirmed to Dawn that the agreement had been signed and work started to materialise this scheme. According to the deal, he said, the government shall pay Rs3,900 to the company against each test.

“The company shall not charge a single penny from the patients,” he added.

Setting a limit, both sides have agreed to perform 200 CT Scan tests at every DHQ hospital per month, the health secretary said. For the first six months, the government has guaranteed payment against all 200 tests to the company from each hospital, no matter whether the number of tests is 150 or below. However, after this period, the payment shall be made according to the number of tests, he added.

There are three categories of patients who could benefit from this scheme. According to the arrangement, the indoor and emergency patients at the 20 selected DHQ hospitals would be provided this facility free of cost. However, the outpatient department visitors shall be charged Rs1,000 as minimum fee against each scan.

The government shall pay Rs3 million to the company against each DHQ Hospital for the renovation and maintenance of CT Scan rooms or the area specified for the purpose. From this amount, it shall provide patient-friendly CT Scan centres equipped with spacious air-conditioned waiting areas.

“The agreement was signed initially for a period of five years and the company shall provide CT Scan test facility 24 hours without any halt during this time period,” the secretary said.

He further said that there were 24 DHQ hospitals in Punjab, and of them four were already providing CT-Scan test facilities at government expense.

Many patients had to travel for hours to get this critical test done at major health facilities. Particularly, an enormous crowd of patients was witnessed at government hospitals of the provincial capital where they had to wait for weeks to get the test done.

Published in Dawn February 7th, 2017