After the BMC emphasised the need to upgrade the health care system in civic hospitals in its 2011-12 budget, an X-ray machine at Rajawadi Hospital has been found to be out of order for the past 3-4 months.
After the BMC emphasised the need to upgrade the health care system in civic hospitals in its 2011-12 budget, an X-ray machine at Rajawadi Hospital has been found to be out of order for the past 3-4 months. In addition, doctors at the hospital are finding it difficult to treat patients with essential items like saline going out of stock.
According to the doctors, the X-ray machine has not been used ever since the hospital ran out of X-ray films. “We received a fresh stock of X-ray films only after three months, but now the X-ray machine is out of order. We’ve been waiting for the machine to be repaired for the past 2-3 weeks. “Patients are presently being asked to get X-rays done from private clinics.
Surprisingly, the hospital also possesses a digital X-ray machine worth approximately Rs3 lakh which has been lying unused ever since it was purchased two years ago.
Rajawadi Hospital is one of the major civic hospitals admitting casualties in the Central line from Sion to Thane. Since there aren’t many such hospitals along the route, a large number of patients visit the hospital on a daily basis.
“Considering the number of patients coming to the hospital, we are surprised to see the delay shown from the authorities’ side to repair the machine. Every year the hospital spends enormous amounts of money in renovations. Most of the time, it is not required. They can divert these funds in buying medicines and repairing machines instead,” said a doctor from the casualty ward.
The lack of essential medicines and medical facilities in peripheral hospitals like Rajawadi was also mentioned in a recent study conducted by the Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT) in October 2010. It found that patients in peripheral hospitals continue to complain about inadequate facilities. Patients are also beleaguered by constant referrals for pathological tests and injections.
A patient admitted to Rajawadi Hospital was even asked to buy his own medicines. “For the past few months, the saline was out of stock. We had to ask families of patients to buy it from outside. There are many essential drugs that go out of stock and it takes months to get them replenished. At civic hospitals, patients are supposed to get free medicines. Patients fight with us but we can’t do much to help them.”
The study also found a high rate of referrals from peripheral hospitals on trauma and specialised cases due to lack of facilities. The absence of emergency services at night was identified as another serious concern. All the hospitals were found to lack adequate stock of drugs, especially antibiotics. Diagnostic equipment was also found to be dysfunctional in many cases. Doctors say that in the absence of essential materials required to perform surgery, they are forced to send them to KEM Hospital and Sion hospital.
However, Dr Seema Malik, in-charge of peripheral hospitals, denied that the X-ray machine at Rajawadi Hospital was not functioning.
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