Gauhati Medical College and Hospital

Guwahati, June 9: The Assam government will make major radiological investigations such as MRI and CT scan free for poor and lower middle-class patients at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

Health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma instructed the hospital authorities yesterday to start the process of making such investigations free of cost for patients from next month. The instruction has been issued to other government hospitals in the state, which provide MRI and CT scan facilities.

Poor patients get most of the services at GMCH for free. But the hospital authorities have not been able to make MRI and CT scan free because of certain technical difficulties and financial implications. Private laboratories near GMCH have taken advantage of the situation and are allegedly luring patients through middlemen to undertake such tests at their labs at exorbitant fees.

“Maintenance of an MRI machine is very costly. Repairing or replacement of a single part of MRI costs nearly Rs 50 lakh. Most patients in GMCH come from poor families and hence get most services for free. However, a free MRI service was so far not financially viable for GMCH. But the government has now taken a decision to reimburse the cost the hospital would incur by providing free MRI and CT scan to such patients,” Sarma told this correspondent.

Sarma said though the scheme would be strictly confined to patients from the BPL category initially, the GMCH principal and superintendent could use their discretion in extending the scheme. “For example, a patient may not have a BPL card and at the same time cannot afford the charges for an MRI or CT scan in GMCH. Such patients could be brought under the scheme after proper verification of his background. Later, we will see how the scheme could be further extended to include lower middle-class patients,” the minister said.

Sarma also instructed the hospital to increase the number of kidney transplant operations conducted at the hospital. He said to perform rare surgeries and transplantation, the construction of a super-speciality unit at GMCH would be expedited.

A doctor at GMCH welcomed the initiative but said only with time one could say how the hospital management would implement the scheme. “Benefits of free schemes for poor patients should not diverted towards treatment of relatives, friends of VIPs, ruling party leaders and workers and residents of Jalukbari (Sarma is an MLA from the constituency),” he said.

He added that the number of paramedical staff and nurses must be increased to help doctors in view of the increasing rush at GMCH.