With no facility at polyclinic hospital, patients forced to visit private labs. PHOTO: FILE
The MRI machine, used for disease detection, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring, has not been working for the past four days, and according to officials, about 20 to 30 people are on the waiting list for their scans.
On the other hand, Polyclinic, the second largest hospital in the federal capital, could not install the machine due to lack of space.
Although, the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM) has an MRI facility but it is not open to general public.
Low income patients undergo the tests free-of-charge at the PIMS, while those who can afford the tests pay over Rs3,000.
The same test costs around Rs15,000 in private diagnostic labs.
Meanwhile, surgeons at the urology and plastic surgery department have also been refusing to operate on patients due to the suspended cooling systems in the operating rooms.
There are eight operation theatres within the main hospital, although, others have some kind of cooling systems however, the operation theatres for urology and plastic surgery have no such system and it is highly unhygienic to operate in the given conditions.
The urology operation theatre has been shut for the past two weeks, where about five to six patients are operated upon daily, according to the doctors.
“Patients can’t be operated upon in this summer heat when there are no systems to keep the operating rooms cool,” remarked one of the surgeons adding that operations were long procedures and could not be performed in the given conditions.
There is no proper cooling system for the patients and doctors since the central cooling system of the hospital went out-of-order years ago.
The Pims Spokesperson, Dr Ayesha Essani, said hopefully, the machine would be functional in the coming week.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 13th, 2016.
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