Osmania Hospital's MRI scanner conks out again

Hyderabad: The MRI machine in Osmania General Hospital has not been not working for more than a month, and patients are being sent outside for diagnostics. In a recent case, a 50-year-old patient with a brain tumour who required an MRI could not be taken to a private diagnostic centre as he developed severe complications and had to be rushed to the intensive care unit. The patient succumbed on late on Friday night.

A senior OGH doctor said the unit was failing regularly and the hospital did not have a technical team for the unit. He said the machine had stopped working for two months last year, and it was fixed only after the Aarogyasri Trust released funds. The annual maintenance contract with the manufacturer has not been signed.

Up to 25 patients requiring MRI scans turn up at the hospital every day. All these patients are having to shell out more than Rs 6,000 for the scans at private diagnostics centres. A hospital sources said the patients, many of them from the districts, were being assured of reimbursement from Aarogyasri but that does not happen.

Those patients who cannot afford to go to private centres are being sent to the MNJ Cancer Hospital. OGH superintendent Dr G.V. Murthy confirmed the machine was having problems regularly but said officials were asking the manufacturer to repair it.