Four years on, JKMSCL fails to provide MRI Machine to GMC

TNN Bureau. Updated: 10/8/2019 9:37:03 AM Health and Lifestyle

Patients forced to take to pvt hospitals at 2.5x cost

JAMMU: The Jammu Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation Ltd (JKMSCL) has failed to provide the much-needed MRI Machine to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), the premier hospital of region, despite repeated requests by the hospital authorities since the last around four years.

It may be mentioned that there is only one MRI Machine in the GMC, which also caters to all the Associated Hospitals of GMC including SMGS Hospital, the premier maternity and paediatric hospital of Jammu region, Super specialty Hospital, Chest Diseases Hospital, Dental Hospital and Psychiatric Hospital.

The GMC and all its Associated Hospitals are dependent on only one MRI Machine available at GMC, sources said adding no other hospital other than the GMC has MRI Machine which is used for conducting many vital investigations/tests for ascertaining actual cause of disease.

The doctors after ascertaining actual cause of disease through MRI test prescribe the treatment a patient requires.

“We have been repeatedly urging the JKMSCL since the last four years to provide MRI Machine for GMC by sending our requirement in written along with availability of funds but so far there is no response,” official sources informed The News Now.

They said that proposal, “mentioning dire need and requirement of the hospital with respect to MRI Machine and increasing load on the GMC was sent to the JKMSCL four years back” but there is no response whatsoever.

The JKMSCL was formed by the government to provide medicines, drugs, machines and other required items to various hospitals of the State.

The scenario, they said, is such that patients are given long dates for the vital MRI test ranging from 2 to 3 months.

“Many a time, there are patients who are in emergency and require urgent MRI test but due to such long pendency and huge amount of burden, we tell the patients to get this MRI test done from the market,” a senior doctor at Super Specialty Hospital told The News Now.

Many patients who are not in emergency also require urgent MRI for their further diagnosis like spine injury, cervical, migraine etc, the doctor said.

But due to long dates, their treatment also gets delayed, he said.

Sources informed that on an average, around thirty (30) to forty (40) patients visiting OPDs of different departments at GMC and Super Specialty Hospital are advised MRI by the doctors so that their actual diagnosis could be started.

This figure is apart from the number of patients who are advised MRI in the Associated Hospitals of the GMC, they said.

“That number is also around 20 per day,” they informed.

However, on an average, only around 15 to 20 MRI tests are being done at the GMC as per the capacity of the machine which is far-2 less than the required number, they said.

One MRI test takes around half an hour so in the full duty hours of 7 to eight hours, only 15 to 20 tests can be done, sources said.

Making things worse is the fact that the MRI tests can not be conducted at the GMC at night due to certain limitations.

The scenario is forcing the patients to get MRI test done from the market at much-2 higher rates. At GMC, the rate is a little over Rs 2000, while in the market this tests costs more than Rs 5000.


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