Patients suffer as CT scan machine lies inoperative

The only CT scan machine at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) has remained inoperative for about eight months, much to the suffering of patients.

The patients have to pay more money to get the examination done at private diagnostic centres outside the hospital.

Hospital sources said the machine worth about Tk 10 crore was installed at the 1,000-bed MMCH in 2006. It will take around Tk 50 lakh to repair, they added.

Every day, around 40 patients, mainly from Neuro-medicine, Medicine and Orthopaedic Departments, are advised to undergo CT scan, said an employee at the Radiology and Imaging Department of MMCH. The test is very important, but we cannot render service to the patients, he added

MMCH is the only hospital in Mymensingh region that has a CT scan machine, so serious patients from Jamalpur, Tangail, Sherpur, Netrakona and Kishoreganj are referred to the hospital for CT scan.

The examination used to cost around Tk 2,200 at MMCH, while it costs around Tk 3,500 to 4,000 at private diagnostic centres, sources said. Sometimes it is difficult to take serious patients to diagnostic centres outside the hospital, said attendants of some patients undergoing treatment at MMCH.

"As head of the department, I wrote to the hospital director several times, but the machine is yet to be repaired or a new one procured," said Prof Dr Misbah Uddin Ahmed, head of Radiology and Imaging Department.

A doctor at MMCH said his father was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition in January this year, and he needed CT scan. "I had to take him outside the hospital pushing a trolley myself," he added.

Taking advantage of the situation, brokers of the clinics are inducing patients at MMCH to shift to their respective clinics, said a hospital source.

Engineer Abul Kalam, secretary of Mymensingh Nagorik Andolon, said the hospital must provide all-out treatment facilities for the patients. "The hospital authorities should immediately repair the CT scan machine," he added.

Contacted, MMCH Director, Brig Gen Fasiur Rahman, said several letters have been sent to the ministry concerned to repair the machine but to no avail.