SUKKUR: The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) scan machines at Sukkur Civil Hospital have been sitting idle for about six months only for want of helium gas, which can be got refilled easily at a meagre cost but the hospital administration appears unbothered by the inconvenience the machines’ unavailability is causing its patients.

Sources in the hospital said that thousands of patients, including those battling with life-threatening diseases, were being denied access to crucial diagnostic tests as the hospital’s only MRI and CT scan machines had stopped functioning.

They said that the machines only required minor repairs and refilling of helium gas to resume working but the hospital administration had not taken the problem seriously for six months. The indifference to the issue was simply shocking, they said.

They said that poor patients were forced to get costly MRI scans done at private health facilities, or move to other hospitals, subjecting them to extra physical and mental hardship and thus causing delay in diagnosis of their diseases and initiation of treatment.

The sources said that previously, the machines did around 12 to 20 MRI and CT scans daily. It was absurd that the two vital machines were lying idle only for lack of helium gas, and the situation could be easily rectified with a little amount of seriousness on part of the hospital management, they said.

They said that prolonged denial of the diagnostic facilities was not only causing undue suffering to patients but also undermining the hospital’s reputation as a trusted healthcare provider.

The hospital’s medical superintendent appeared indifferent to getting the issue resolved and helping minimise the patients’ sufferings. The MS’s inaction was particularly alarming, given critical role his office was supposed to play in ensuring smooth functioning of the facility and wellbeing of its patients, they said.

They lamented that the hospital’s governing body, which was responsible for overseeing the facility’s services, had also shown little concern about the problem, which had raised serious questions over the leadership and management at the institution.

They said that disappearance of basic facilities from the hospital was highly disturbing for patients, who were forced to move from one hospital to the other for diagnostic services often at great monetary disadvantage.

They said the hospital’s failure to provide essential diagnostic services was not only a breach of trust but also a violation of patients’ right to receive quality healthcare.

The situation was a clear indication of a systemic failure, where those responsible for overseeing the hospital’s affairs were either unable or unwilling to take decisive action to resolve the crisis, they said.

They regretted that lack of accountability and effective governance were exacerbating the problem, leaving patients to bear the brunt of the gross mismanagement. Besides non-functioning machines, patients often complained about availability of doctors and other required medicines at the hospital, they said.

Children hospital without staff

Many parents complained that the newly-built children’s hospital had neither doctors nor paramedical staff. When they took their ailing children to the facility they found no doctor and paramedics, they said.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2024