RAWALPINDI, Dec 24: The Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) has decided to re-advertise the purchase of a computed tomography (CT) scan machine for the Holy Family Hospital (HFH).

The decision was taken after the HFH could not arrange the money and the two other hospitals in the city refused to divert their funds for the purchase of the diagnostic machinery.

In August, the RMC principal had allocated Rs100 million - Rs65 million for the HFH and Rs35 million for Benazir Bhutto and District Headquarters hospitals - for procurement of equipment and machinery they needed.

The HFH wanted to spend the amount on the purchase of a C.T. scan machine. The same month, the hospital administration floated tenders and received the lowest bid of Rs80 million for the purchase of the diagnostic machine.

However, it did not have that much money and approached the RMC principal about a week back with the request that the amount allocated for the two other hospitals should be provided to it for the purchase of the machine.

The RMC principal put the request before the board of management during a meeting on Monday. However, the two hospital administrations refused to give their share of the funds to the HFH.

The meeting held at the RMC principal office was chaired by Dr Mohammad Aslam. RMC Principal Dr Afzal Farooqi, Director Health Dr Zafar Iqbal Gondal, HFH medical superintendent Dr Arshad Ali Sabir, BBH’s Dr Asif Qadir Mir and DHQ Hospital’s Dr Sher Ali Khan attended the meeting.

The medical superintendents of the BBH and the DHQ hospital were of the view that the HFH should procure the C.T. scan machine from the company which provided a similar machine to the Punjab government for a hospital in Bahawalpur at much lower cost.

They said they also had to purchase necessary machinery for their hospitals.

Dr Asif Qadir Mir informed the meeting that there was a dire need for the construction of an operation theatre for the gynae department in his hospital.

Dr Sher Ali Khan said the DHQ hospital was facing shortage of ventilators and nebulisers and he planned to purchase the equipment.The board of management decided to reduce some components of the C.T. scan machine which were not used in general to reduce the cost and re-advertise the tenders.

It may be noted that there is one C.T. scan machine at the DHQ hospital while the two other hospitals have no such facility and refer their patients to private laboratories.

When contacted, the RMC principal confirmed that the tenders for the procurement of the C.T. scan machine would be floated again.

He said he examined the tender details of the hospital in Bahawalpur and found that the price of the C.T. scan machine they purchased was not that much high. “We have also decided to reduce some components of the machinery to bring down its price,” he said.