Inoperative CT scan machine adds to patients’ woes
A pulse oximeter is placed on the hand of a patient. PHOTO: REUTERS
Due to the non-installation of a new transformer for the last two years in the Pakistan Railway Hospital, the CT scan machine of the hospital has become non-functional, leaving the patients deprived of the facility of CT scans and other necessary tests including high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and computed tomography angiography (CTA).
Sources said the patients who are under treatment at the hospital are taken in ambulances to other hospitals in the city for the necessary tests.
They said the patients and their relatives are facing extreme difficulties due to the long waiting time and painful situation of making the critical patients travel back and forth from the Pakistan Railway Hospital to other hospitals in the city.
According to sources, a 16-slice CT scan machine was installed two years ago at a cost of Rs450 million in the Pakistan Railway Hospital which is run under the auspices of the Islamic International Medical College (IIMC).
The official fee was submitted along with a regular demand note to install a separate transformer for the electrical load required to run the CT scan machine, but even after two years, the transformer could not be installed, due to which the CT scan machine could not be made functional till date.
Whereas in various departments of the hospital, CT scan, CTA and HRCT tests are recommended by doctors to the patients who come to the hospital's emergency and outpatient departments, for which the patients are taken to the district headquarters hospital.
The critically ill patients have to go through a painful process of being transported to the district headquarters hospital in ambulances for the tests.
The hospital sources said that due to the non-installation of the new transformer, the CT scan machine is kept non-functional.
In this regard, the Pakistan Railway Hospital’s administration says that we have completed all the legal processes and submitted the fee after issuance of the demand note, but the transformer is not being installed, due to which the patients are facing difficulties.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2023.