Koraput: The state government's half-hearted initiative has resulted in patents' suffering at the district headquarters hospital of Rayagada.

The medical facility, on which the people residing in south-western part of the state depend heavily, fails to properly discharge its service as equipment worth lakhs of rupees are lying unutilised at the hospital.

Hospital authorities take plea of non-availability of adequate technicians to run the machines. Therefore, services such as dialysis, endoscopy and ultrasound have been badly hit at the hospital in spite of having the required infrastructure. Every month, around 20 patients visits the hospital for endoscopy and dialysis. "Even though the hospital is equipped with the machines, those are never put to use. Therefore, the patients, who are visiting the medical facility from the far-flung areas to conduct various tests, are facing problems," said an activist, Ajit Das.

"More so, many of the machines have developed technical snags by remaining unutilised for long. It's just wastage of public revenue," he said.Sources said that in absence of the facilities, the patients were forced to depend either on private hospital in Vishakapatnam or MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur to conduct their tests, which, at times, turned out to be very expensive.

After being inaugurated on July 2, the dialysis machine has not been used for a single time. Similarly, the endoscopy machine, which had been installed at the hospital in 2006, has never been used since then. However, the gynaecologist occasionally uses the ultrasound machine.

"Though the machines are being supplied to the medical facility under various government schemes, no technicians are posted to ensure its proper functioning. That's why such a situation has aroused," said a senior official of the hospital on condition of anonymity.

However, the official said efforts were on to run the machines regularly and the process to appoint the required technicians would also begin shortly. The district officials are unable to give any reason as to why the government is yet to appoint technicians at the hospital.