MCH gets MRI machine, but no radiologist

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: What will you do with an elephant, but without a mahout? The Medical College Hospital (MCH) here is faced with a similar situation. It was a long-pending dream that was realised when the hospital got an MRI machine. The Rs 7 crore-worth machine was commissioned one month ago in the hospital. But from Monday this machine will be shutting down its operations as there is not even a single person in the hospital who knows how to operate it.

A doctor (radiologist) who was taken on a temporary basis for conducting the MRI scanning will be given the marching orders on Monday after his one-month stint. The reason, a controversy has erupted since this doctor had earlier worked with Metro Scans, a private medical laboratory.

This doctor was employed by the Hospital Development Society on a temporary basis by paying a monthly salary of Rs 40,000. Despite giving advertisements in the newspapers (three times), no radiologists applied for the job at the MCH here. Hence, the society had no other option but to go for a poaching from the private laboratories.

Soon came a controversy that this doctor was sending the patients to the private laboratory,  where he had earlier worked, instead of doing the scanning at the MCH. Following this controversy, the hospital authorities have now decided to sack this doctor and put shutters to the MRI machine.

When a radiologist is paid between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh in the private sector, no one is ready to accept the meagre salary offered by the Hospital Development Society of the MCH. It is also interesting to note that when the applications were called for MRI technicians, only two had applied for it and one among them has joined.

Controversies have not been new for the Medical College Hospital. But once again, it has emerged successful in scuttling the operations of the MRI machine, which was meant for offering free service to BPL patients. When a private lab is charging Rs 6,000 per scanning, it was offered here for just Rs 2,500 for the APL patients.

For the past one month, seven to eight scans were being done in a day on an average, when hundreds of applications are still pending. ‘’Since this being a new machine and the radiologist is yet to get accustomed to the machine, the process of each scanning was taking at least one-and-a-half hours. Hence, we could do only less than ten scans a day,’’ Dr  Nizzarudheen, hospital superintendent, told Expresso.

So what next? ‘’We have no other option but to shut down its operations since we don’t have the radiologists who have the technical know-how to operate it. Or else, we will have to wait till we get a new radiologist,’’ said the hospital superintendent.

rajivg@expressbuzz.com