PESHAWAR: The MRI machines at the Hayatabad Medical Complex and Khyber Teaching Hospital here have broken down, troubling patients.

The directors of both medical teaching institutions claim that repairs are underway, so the scanners would be functional ‘very soon’.

The MRI machines are out of order due to faults that aren’t covered in the maintenance agreements, according to sources.

They told Dawn that the HMC’s two-year agreement for repair and maintenance with the private firm was valid until 2027 but it didn’t cover UPS repairs.

The sources said the partial agreement was made by the administration to save money but on June 5, the system developed fault forcing the staff members to stop doing MRI scans.

“Our timely action prevented the scanner from being fully damaged as we tried to keep it standing, which is important. We were also quick to inform the administration about the issue,” a radiologist told Dawn.

HMC director Dr Gulzar Ahmad Khan said that the MRI machine would become functional very soon.

“The MRI machine is alright. There is a problem in UPS for which new batteries have arrived along with a team of experts from Lahore,” he said.

The director said installation was in progress and the scanner would start functioning very soon. The state-of-art MRI machine was installed in 2016 and performed 40-45 MRIs per day at the rate 50pc lower than the market’s.

“As we have high-penance scanners and radiologists, even the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre sends patients to us under a memorandum of understanding signed when the former didn’t have its own machine,” the radiologist said.

He said the machine generated about Rs80 million revenue annually.

When contacted, director of the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) Dr Sajjadullah Dawar said the MRI machine had become non-functional but the required equipment had reached Peshawar.

“The machine will start functioning by the middle of next week,” he said.

Dr Dawar said the most advanced machine was installed in February 2022 that handled around 100 cases per day.

“Our rates are far lower than the market’s, so we not only took care of our own patients but also the cases were referred from other hospitals and private clinics,” he said.

The director said the machine was under warranty and hadn’t developed a major fault but the hospital had stopped using it for heating up due to cooling issues.

He said the engineers had advised staff members to rest the machine until the desired equipment arrived.

“It will start working after replacement of parts,” he said.

Experts said that both hospitals had supply chain bio-medical engineering departments and they were required to constantly monitor all machines in their respective facilities.

They said the relevant departments should lodge complaints about any problem in a timely manner as the uninterrupted operations of machines were very important for proper diagnosis of the patients.

The experts said under agreements, the machine suppliers sent gadgets and staff from other cities and abroad due to which complaints were lodged much earlier.

They said the private sector not only charged patients heavily but their reports couldn’t be more authentic than the hospitals.

The experts said in government hospitals, the reports on MRI and CT scans were written by qualified radiologists, who could be consulted by referral doctors, leading to quality treatment. They said doctors relied on diagnostics before suggesting treatment or surgeries.

The experts said public hospitals had got top quality machines that required maintenance and repairs.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2026