Patna, Jan. 29: All the six medical colleges in the state would have CT (computerised tomography) scan and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) facilities by the end of this year.
Bihar State Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation would soon float tenders inviting private agencies to install CT scanners in public-private partnership mode. At present, the MRI machines at the medical colleges in Bihar defunct.
The patients have to go to private clinics for MRI and CT scan, which charge them between Rs 1,500 and Rs 3,000.
Once new CT scanners and MRI machines are installed in the medical colleges, the patients would be able to undergo the tests at a much cheaper rate. The state government would fix the subsidised rates for the diagnoses.
The state would spend about Rs 10 crore on purchasing equipment. Private companies, who enter into an agreement with the government, would take care of the operation and the maintenance of the machines, sources said.
“Within the next few months, we plan to install these machines at the medical colleges, as people are suffering and are often misled by touts to go to diagnostic centres even before they enter the hospitals,” health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said.
He added that patients would have to cough up some money to avail the services as these machines are expensive and their maintenance are also costly and trained professionals are required for the same.
The rate for CT scan at the medical colleges would be between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200 and charges for MRI, too, will be in the same bracket.
The CT scan machine at the state’s premier health institution Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), a 1,675-bed facility, has been defunct for over two-and-a-half years.
Sources in the hospital said almost 90 per cent of the patients admitted to the critical care unit require diagnoses such as the X-ray and CT scan.
“However, the CT scanner has been defunct for close to two-and-a-half years. This leaves attendants of the patients with no option but to take critical patients outside the hospital,” a junior doctor told The Telegraph.
Sources in the hospital said over 100 patients turn up at PMCH every day for CT scan.
“With the machine defunct, the patients either return home without undergoing the test or visit private CT scan centres where they have to cough up exorbitant charges,” a source at the emergency ward said.
Sources in the hospital said a number of touts roam around the emergency ward of the hospital to lure the kin of patients to get the diagnosis done at private CT scan centres.
“Many poor patients come to PMCH as they can get the basic facilities here without having to spend much. The emergency department is in the grip of touts who take away the patients for diagnosis. Often a number of patients arrive at the hospital with CT scan reports, even though they are not required. All this is happening because the facility has not been working in the hospital for some time now,” a source said.
