RAWALPINDI: Due to the unavailability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines in all the three government hospitals in the city, patients, especially those with head injuries, are facing hardship to have the costly test done at private laboratories.

The Punjab government had approved Rs90 million in the fiscal year 2016-17 for installing an MRI machine at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH). However, the project is yet to materialise.

A senior doctor at the HFH told Dawn that the MRI machine was used for the diagnosis of most of the major diseases such as hepatitis, head injuries, brain tumours, spinal cord injury and cancer.

“Though CT scan machine is also used for checking the patients, it is the MRI machine which gives the most accurate results,” he added.

Due to the absence of the facility in the government hospitals, patients have to go to private clinics for the MRI test which costs them between Rs7,000 and Rs10,000,” said Mohammad Akhter, a hepatitis patient at the HFH.

He said doctors at the hospital had advised him to get an MRI test done but he was unable to afford the test at a private diagnostic centre. “Had an MRI machine been available in the government hospital, I would have done the test for a nominal fee,” he said.

Shahzad Khan, a patient suffering from a lung disease, said he had come to the HFH as he cannot afford treatment at private clinics but the doctors at the government hospital sent him to a private laboratory for pathological tests.

“The government should install all the necessary equipment in the public sector hospitals otherwise there would be no difference between these hospitals and dispensaries where people get medicines for fever and flu only,” he said.

It may be noted that in 2004 the provincial government had allocated Rs80 million for the installation of an MRI machine at the HFH which started functioning in 2008. However, after only 66 days, the machine developed a fault.

Another senior doctor at the HFH said the machine was installed through a private company and when it developed the fault there was a dispute between the government and the firm over its repair.

Later, the government decided to install a new machine at the hospital as the repair work was so costly that it was better to replace the faulty machine.

But a new machine is yet t be installed a year later. “If the machine is installed at the HFH, the other two government hospitals in the city can also send their patients here,” he said.

When contacted, the chairman of the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) board of governors, Dr Mohammad Aslam, said the government was working on the project to provide the MRI machine to the HFH.

“The Rs90 million project has been approved and the machine will be installed in a month or two. The facility will also be open for patients at the Benazir Bhutto hospital and the District Headquarters (DHQ) hospital,” he said.

He admitted that the project was slow but said the government installed new CT scan machines in all the three hospitals in the first phase while the MRI machine would be provided in the second phase.

Dr Aslam said the government was taking a number of steps to improve medical facilities in the three hospitals. He said the BBH would be made a model hospital at a cost of Rs1 billion during the current fiscal year.

“A foreign consultant has been hired by the provincial government for the development of the BBH and he visited the hospital to finalise the project,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2016