EYE-OPENER: The prolonged absence of essential diagnostic equipment, including CT scan and MRI, at Gandhi Hospital has prompted students and other concerned people to resort to banners and protest dharnas. — Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: Computerised tomography scan (CT scan) equipment still remains a dream for Gandhi Hospital, years after the hospital requested the Government to procure the equipment.

The absence of the CT scan, which led to several outbursts from relatives of patients alleging that their kin died due to delay in getting a CT scan, had caught the attention of the State Human Rights Commission, which visited the hospital in December and called for urgent installation of the equipment.

However, the public outcry and the SHRC's visit have changed little in the hospital with the CT scan yet to come. Superintendent A.Y. Chary still repeats what he said in February, that the "tenders were already placed" and that the equipment is expected in a month's time.

Major issue

The fallout of not having such critical equipment in a hospital that receives over 1,500 patients daily is not trivial. According to hospital sources, 10 to 12 patients require a CT scan daily. The management currently sends these patients to Osmania General Hospital or to private clinics.

While OGH has its own load of patients, in turn forcing many of Gandhi's patients to wait for days together, private clinics charge around thrice the amount charged at the Government hospitals.

Blame shifted

The delay, one senior Government official points out, has not been on the part of the State Government, which sanctioned the equipment long ago, but on the part of the Andhra Pradesh Health, Medical Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation that was entrusted with the job of procuring the equipment.

"A corporate hospital will not require more than four months to procure a CT scan, if it is an imported one. An Indian made scan with imported parts, the kind requested for by Gandhi Hospital, should not take more than two months for tenders, orders and installation. Here, it has been years but still there is no sight of the machine," the official remarks.

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