A diagnostic equipment lies unused at BMC Hospital. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 19: Poor patients who come to the municipal hospital hoping for inexpensive treatment are getting an unfair deal.

Expensive and sophisticated medical equipment, such as laparoscopy, endoscopy and ultrasound machines, are lying unused at the hospital in Old Town because of the absence of skilled technicians to handle them. Patients who need the tests, therefore, have to go to private clinics or hospitals to get them done at expensive rates.

Hospital officials said that as the machines had not been used for more than three years, their condition was doubtful. The ultrasound machine had been dysfunctional for over a year after it was left unused for more than three years.

It is mostly patients from economically weaker sections of society — staying in places such as Old Town, Samantarapur, Tankapani road and on the outskirts of the city at Balakati, Dhauli, Balianta and Balipatna — who come to the hospital, said sources.

Chief municipal medical officer of the hospital Nirode Kumar Sahoo admitted that shortage of technical staff had adversely affected them. “Several equipment have been lying unused for years due to lack of skilled personnel. Although higher authorities have been informed about this matter many times, no steps have been taken to fill the posts,” said Sahoo.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation bought the laparoscopy machine over five years ago for this hospital. At that time, it was used regularly as the hospital had a technician with expertise in handling the machine. However, after the technician was transferred about three years ago, the hospital made temporary arrangements for a while by hiring technicians on days when there were at least five patients present for the test.

But over the past three years, no permanent technician was hired to handle the machine and therefore, it has remained unused. Finally, the machine that costs about Rs 40 lakh was taken away by the directorate of health services last year as it was lying unused here, a hospital official said.

The story behind the endoscopy machine, which costs Rs 25 lakh, is similar. The machine was bought in 1993 and initially, hospital technicians used to handle it. But after these technicians were transferred, no recruitments were made to replace them. Since then, the machine has been gathering dust.

The ultrasound machine was installed in the hospital in 1994, but for the past three years, it has been lying unused due to lack of a technician to handle it. It no longer works. Hospital authorities have not taken any steps to repair it except for writing a few letters to their bosses.

Renuka Jena, relative of a patient, said she had been admitted to the hospital for pregnancy some time ago. But because she needed to undergo an ultrasound sonography test, she had to be moved to a private hospital. “I had come to the corporation hospital because treatment is much cheaper here. But ultimately, I had to go to a private facility and cough up a large sum for my treatment,” said Jena.

The corporation has allocated Rs 40 lakh to the hospital in the current fiscal. Of the total amount, Rs 10 lakh is for procurement of medicines that are given free of cost to the patients. Additional municipal commissioner K.P. Pati said they would take steps shortly to meet the technical staff crunch at the hospital.