Fixing splinters: Lack of image intensifiers causing problems at Mayo

‘The machines at several other public hospitals are out of order’.

LAHORE:

The X-ray Image Intensifier is functional at only one public hospital in Lahore.

Only Mayo Hospital has a functional machine and patients from other teaching hospitals have to be sent to Mayo for a job that takes less than 10 minutes.

An orthopaedic surgeon from Jinnah Hospital told The Express Tribune that the machine was used in cases in which minute objects such as splinters, needles or nails got embedded under the skin and broke inside or were barely visible on the surface. In such cases, it is not possible for doctors to take the splinter out without an image intensifier. “The doctor will either have to notch a cut on the skin to take the object out, that is hard, or simply use an image intensifier,” he said.

The machine converts x-rays into images which help the doctors precisely locate the splinters and take them out. The procedure hardly takes 10 to 15 minutes and can be carried out by orthopaedic surgeons, he said.



“Our machine [at the Jinnah Hospital] has been out of order for several months...we have to send our patients to Mayo Hospital,” the doctor said.

The Jinnah Hospital, the General Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the Services Hospital all have their machines but they are not functional.

A doctor at the Orthopaedics Department of the Mayo Hospital said, “Several private clinics have this machine too. But it is mostly poor patients who need the procedure. Women, who embroider, for example, need come to us with needles embedded in their fingers as do industrial workers and plumbers. The treatment at private clinics is usually beyond their means and when they come to us, we have to put other patients on hold to cater to them.”

Dr Tajammul Butt of Mayo Hospital said, “We receive around 20 patients on an average day. They are referred to us by various hospitals for treatment that requires the image intensifier. We perform around 10 major orthopaedic operations daily at Mayo. Problems occur when a lot of patients, who can be operated on in 15 minutes each, visit us together and we have to treat them...the major operations get delayed. The machine costs around Rs6 million and is very not expensive to fix.”

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said maintenance of out of order machinery at hospitals was an issue the government had now addressed. “We will keep a provision for maintenance in every hospital’s budget in the coming provincial budget. Hospitals will be able to get their machinery fixed on their own without seeking funds from the Health Department.” Rafique said he would look into the matter of the image intensifiers and try to get the matter resolved.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2014.