Defunct MRI Machine: MKCG Hospital In Odisha’s Berhampur Pays Rs 80 Lakh To Pvt Labs In 6 Months

Berhampur: With its MRI machine lying defunct, the MKCG Medical College and Hospital at Berhampur in Odisha’s Ganjam district has already paid about Rs 80 lakh to private diagnostic centres in 6 months.

According to sources, the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine in the MKCG Hospital has stopped functioning nine months back. As a result, the hospital authorities had to depend on the private diagnostic centres for conducting the MRI test of the indoor and outdoor patients.

The MKCG has already paid Rs 79.94 lakh to a privately managed Nidan Diagnostic and Research Centre situated near the main gate of the campus in six months from November 2022 to April 2023. It was revealed in the reply to an RTI application filed by Pitabash Panda, a local advocate and spokesperson of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC).

Several accident victims come to the MKCG Hospital on daily basis to conduct brain scanning in MRI machine free of cost. But the hospital authorities forward them to the privately managed diagnostic centres including Nidan Diagnostic and Medi Images situated near the hospital, the sources said.

The brain scanning costs Rs 6,000 per patient in private diagnostic centres. As the MRI machine in MKCG has become defunct, its doctors forward these patients to the private diagnostic centres after registering their names in the MRI unit. The MKCG pays the charges of the brain scans on behalf of the patients.

“This whole process puts a big question mark on spending huge amount while the Rs 10-crore machine is lying idle inside MKCG. Instead of paying the private diagnostic centres and pushing the patients into trouble, the MKCG authority must arrange a new MRI machine or repair it,” said Panda.

One MRI unit was running in the MKCG in the public-private participation mode since 2016. The MKCG used to charge Rs 4,000 per person. But in November 2017, there was a short circuit during some electrical repair works, and the machine got damaged.

A new MRI machine was set up in the MKCG on January 16, 2018.  Though the unit was accommodated in the Radio-Diagnostic department and runs in the PPP mode, no fee is charged to the hospital patients.