The biggest civic-run KEM Hospital has got a second MRI machine that will benefit hundreds of poor, needy patients who had to wait for hours or run to another hospital for a scan. The earlier MRI machine is over a decade old and often malfunctions.
Additional commissioner of BMC, Sanjay Deshmukh, said, “All machinery is old and the hospital requires new machinery. A proposal has been passed in the standing committee and soon, all machinery will be replaced or repaired. Tenders have been given to the same companies as they are familiar with machine technology, know how to care for machines and repair them properly.”
A technician from KEM said, “We get more than 20 patients every day for MRI. The machine that we are presently dependent on is more than 10 years old. It has outlived its use and often suffers from mechanical complications.”
At times of crisis, patients are sent to Shatabdi hospital, Govandi, for MRI scans, where too, the MRI machine is lying in a non-functional condition due to which, patients have to again rush to KEM Hospital and wait their turn in serpentine queues.
According to Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM Hospital, “After the second machine, the hospital will be able to provide services to 40 patients on a daily basis. They will be able to avail the service at a cost of Rs 1,500. Whereas, in private diagnostic centres, the cost is more than Rs 3,000.
