Dangerous emissions: Health hazard at the hospital’s doorstep

CT scan machine at District Headquarter Hospital has been placed near emergency ward.

ISLAMABAD:

Wrong placement of the CT-scan machine in the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) in Rawalpindi is posing a serious health risk to patients, it has been learnt.

The machine has been installed near the entrance of the main emergency ward. Its harmful radiations pose serious health hazards to the visitors.

Apart from the patients, attendants and doctors that come to the main emergency ward or medical and surgical out-patient departments (OPDs) have to cross the “strategically placed” machine.

The receptionists and other hospital staff that have been stationed over there are the ones who are most vulnerable. “It is because no insulator sheets have been installed in the walls,” said an official. According to hospital sources, everyday more than 25 CT-scans are conducted at DHQ.

An official from the Radiology Department said, “It was placed here last year before the chief minister’s visit, as the hospital staff tried to fix the place in haste.”

He said that last year one of the hospital staff was sent to jail, who had been among other things accused of wrongly installing the CT-scan machine.

“One CT-scan emits radiation which is equal to the radiation emitted during 200 X-rays and it affects people with in the diameter of 500 meters,” he said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a senior doctor working in the area on the condition of anonymity said that the radiation is very dangerous for all the patients of all ages coming to the hospital. “But these could be hazardous to the pregnant women as these radiations can cause serious abnormalities to the baby inside the womb,” he said. It also affects the sexual reproductive health of young men and women exposed to the rays. Around the clock critical patients are brought to the emergency ward of the hospital.

When contacted, Medical Superintendent (MS) of DHQ Dr Sher Ali first denied all the allegations saying that the lead sheet is being installed in the walls. Later when asked about the visitors who might be vulnerable to the radiation, he said, “What can be done?”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2011.