Calcutta, Dec. 9 :    Calcutta, Dec. 9:  The only Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine in a government-run hospital in Bengal is lying 'idle' in Calcutta's Bangur Institute of Neurology. Even as rates of several procedures, tests and cabin charges go up by an average of 40 per cent from December 1, the government has turned a blind eye to the possibilities of revenue-generation from this state-of-the art equipment, officials admit. More important is the three to four-month waiting list to get the diagnostic procedure done on an ailing patient, corroborating price-hike critics' views that the increase in charges is not commensurate with improvements in hospital services. Installed late last year at Bangur Institute of Neurology, near SSKM Hospital, trial runs of the machine began in January. Former chief minister Jyoti Basu inaugurated it in February. The Rs 6.5-crore equipment, with a strong 1.5 Tesler magnet that enables all functional imaging facilities with spectroscopy, was the pride of the state. Not even the private sector had such technology. When the proposal had been placed on Basu's table in 1997-98, he had asked why the machine was so costly, when the one at the joint-sector AMRI Hospital cost around Rs 4 crore. The explanation was: If the government was investing such a huge amount, it had to be in the latest-generation equipment with technology that would last at least 10 years. But nine months later, the machine is being grossly under-utilised. With a capacity to carry out 40 procedures a day, only eight to 10 patients undergo MRI scans a day. And all because there are not enough trained technicians to operate the machine. Ironically, even after paying the full charges of Rs 3,500 for a general brain MRI (this rate has not been revised with the other hikes), a patient will have to wait three full months, if not more, till his turn comes along. 'Many patients are forced to get the procedure done in the private sector. Very few can afford to wait that long, especially in emergency situations,' said a senior doctor at the institute. Technicians who operate the CT scanner at the institute are now operating the MRI. With one of them on leave at any point of time, only three are available to run the MRI. 'The technicians' rosters are being rotated with duty at the CT scanner, which is not feasible,' the doctor pointed out. The lack of manpower, including the absence of a resident medical officer at the institute, has been one of the reasons why emergency CT scans have not been carried out during the night for the last three years. Up to 70 CT scans are, however, performed during the day with the Japanese 'workhorse' scanner installed after the first one broke down in 1991. 'The scanner is now generating profits for the institute and the department,' said Prof Manoj Bhattacharya, head of the department of neurology at the institute. 'Similarly, a proposal had been submitted in 1999 to then health minister Partha De that would have had the MRI breaking even within five years of its installation,' he said. 'This would have been possible if 28 cases were done every day 300 days a year at an average of Rs 4,000 each, with a provision for 30 per cent free cases,' Bhattacharya added. 'At this rate, in another five years, the government would have generated enough funds to buy another MRI machine.' The Planning Commission had even passed the proposal. 'But ultimately, only a quarter of the manpower required to achieve this is now available. That, too, when a bright B.Sc graduate is all the qualification that is required for a technician, who will undergo training at the institute itself,' the professor lamented. 'Just increasing prices is not enough. The health department grossly lacks hospital management skills and techniques. It's a glaring example of being penny wise and pound foolish,' a senior doctor pointed out.