CT Scan facility to be available to all patients at BBH

Rawalpindi
Administration of Benazir Bhutto Hospital claimed that the facility of CT Scan would be available to all patients within next week after completion of at least 100 test runs and training of the concerned staff for working on the modern equipment.
The facility of CT Scan was supposed to be operational in September 2014 as in June last year, the Punjab health department has placed order for the 16-slice CT Scan to the supplier directing the firm to install and make the equipment operational within 90 days.
According to the agreement, the supplier has to install the CT Scan and lead sheets and hand it over to the hospital after completing test-run. The supplier is also responsible for training the hospital staff to operate the CT Scan and the training of almost all staff of Radiology Department at BBH including doctors and technicians is in progress, said BBH Chief Dr. Asif Qadir Mir while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.
He added that as many as 60 test-runs have been completed so far as the machine is operational for two weeks. At present, the tests of patients who are admitted to the hospital are being done only, he said.
He added the lead sheets have also been installed and the BBH has received licence regarding safety of the visitors from the concerned department of atomic energy commission.
It is important that earlier the BBH had a single-slice CT Scan that had been out of order for over two years. The CT Scan installed at the BBH recently has a two-year warranty with parts while the supplier would be responsible for five-year maintenance of the equipment.
The CT Scan is a radiological diagnostic (X-ray) scanning machine that is used to take cross-sectional images of a part of the body through axial tomography that can be monitored on computer screen. The CT Scan is used for diagnostic purposes in a number of cases requiring treatment particularly at medical, orthopaedic and neurosurgery departments.
Hundreds of patients had been suffering badly because of unavailability of CT Scan at the BBH because the facility costs heavy at private set-ups. The facility costs a patient around Rs6,000 at a private set-up while in public sector hospitals; the facility is made available to poor patients either free or at subsidized fee.
The BBH had been referring well over 200 patients every month to District Headquarters Hospital or Holy Family Hospital for CT Scan, said Dr. Mir.
He said the hospital would try to make the facility of CT Scan available to patients round the clock once it gets fully operational. The facility would be provided to indoor patients and patients at emergency department free of cost however, the outpatient department cases would be charged subsidized fee, he said.
He, however, added that the deserving OPD patients would also be provided the facility free of cost through Bait-ul-Maal. The BBH would follow the government’s policy on fee structure for the facility that has already been implemented at the HFH and DHQ Hospital, said Dr. Mir.