Market rates too high for patients
Arvind Sharma
Jammu Tawi, Feb 24: The entire Jammu region is faced with a serious health issue as the lone MRI Machine at Jammu’s premier hospital, the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), has gone defunct thus putting the patients suffering from different ailments to a higher risk.
The only MRI Machine at GMC-Jammu went out of order on 15th of last month but so far it has not been made functional.
When approached, the GMC-Jammu Principal, Dr Ashutosh Gupta said that the maintenance work of the MRI Machine at GMC-Jammu has been going on and it will still take more than a week to make the only 1 MRI Machine functional.
Meanwhile, sources said that around 25-30 MRI scans were being conducted by the MRI Machine on a daily basis. This MRI Machine is now out of order and thus the people suffering from different serious ailments are getting this MRI scan done from private clinical and hospitals spending lot of money.
“The maintenance work of the MRI Machine has been going on,” the Principal of GMC-Jammu, Dr Ashutosh, informed the Northlines, while adding, “It will be soon made functional as the Machine is under warranty”.
However, sources said that patients with serious ailments have been getting the MRI scan done from the private clinics spending lot of money since the last more than one and a half month due to non-functional MRI Machine at GMC-Jammu.
They said that the only MRI Machine at GMC has suffered earthling damages, the wirings have to be changed, the gas has to be refilled and then the trial will be conducted after which the Machine will be made functional.
At GMC-Jammu, the rate of MRI scan is around Rs 2300, while in the private market it is around Rs 4600. The MRI services at GMC have been suspended for maintenance of the machine.
The MRI services in GMC have been suspended for maintenance and servicing of the magnets and refilling of the Helium gas, Dr Ashutosh Gupta, said, while adding, the machine is currently under warranty and the maintenance is being undertaken by M/S Philips.
