Faulty CT Scan at BBH may take another week to get operational

Rawalpindi : A good number of patients at Benazir Bhutto Hospital including those reaching hospital in emergency in need of CT Scan have been suffering badly as the CT Scan installed here at the BBH has been out of order for over three weeks.

According to BBH administration, the faulty CT Scan would take another week or so to get operational. The CT Scan that got out of order after appearance of faults in its components was installed at the BBH in 2015. The faulty CT Scan machine needs replacement of a component that according to BBH administration is being imported from Dubai.

Currently the facility of CT Scan is available at Holy Family Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital in town and the BBH has been referring patients requiring the facility to the HFH and DHQ Hospital, said Medical Superintendent at BBH Dr. Khalid Randhawa while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday.

He said the CT Scan at BBH was in warranty and the company that had supplied the machine is responsible for its maintenance. The company imported an equipment first to detect fault in the machine and now they have processed import of a component that is needed to be removed to get CT Scan operational, he added.

The CT Scan that is a costly machine worth around Rs50 million is used to take cross-sectional images of a part of the body mostly related to brain and spinal region particularly lumbar spine (lower back) through axial tomography that can be monitored on computer screen.

It is important that most patients reaching hospitals in need of CT Scan are emergency cases and in these cases, delay of a few minutes or hours can make a case complicated enough to be treated. The CT Scan in most of the road traffic accident cases is required to check clotting of blood in brain when an accident victim with severe head injury reaches hospital.

It is important that to avoid difficulties at public sector hospitals, many of the patients avail the facility at private setups at much higher rates. The private setups cost patients well above rupees 6000 for the facility that has been available at the government hospitals at subsidized rates.

Dr. Randhawa said he himself is monitoring the situation and tried his utmost to ensure that all patients reaching BBH in need of CT Scan can have the facility from HFH and DHQ Hospital after being referred there.

The company responsible for maintenance of CT Scan has informed me that the spare part required for its maintenance would be replaced within one week, he said.