Tie up with personal hospitals the place authorities services lacked CT scanners : Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel

Due to a scarcity of computed tomography (CT) scanners in authorities hospitals, the state authorities tied up with personal hospitals and clinics, which personal these machines and have radiologists to function them, Deputy Chief Minister and state Health Minister Nitin Patel advised the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
“CT scanners and the MRI machine are important for diagnosing diseases. At present, we are giving these machines to the medical colleges of the state and the civil hospitals. In many places, these are already in use. In places where these machines are not there, we have made arrangements with private clinics and hospitals having CT scanners and MRI machines to test referred patients from government hospitals, free of cost. The cost incurred is given to the private hospitals by the government,” the well being minister stated. He was replying to a query posed by Congress MLA Chirag Kalariya.Patel stated there was no provision to put in CT scanner and MRI machines at Community Health Centres because of lack of radiologists.
Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani advised the House that Covid-19 sufferers want CT scan to establish the extent of an infection. “As per the details provided during the Question Hour today, there are only 16 CT scanners and five MRI machines in 33 districts of the state. In 20 districts of the state, there are no CT scanners in government hospitals and in 28 districts the machines are not working and so the poor have to approach private clinics and pay Rs 2,000-4,000. This fight (against Covid-19) is long and, so, has the government planned to provide CT scan machines in all the districts?” Dhanani requested.

Acknowledging what Dhanani was saying as true, Patel said: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, it has come to our notice that a lot of people were doing CT scans along with the tests for the disease. CT scans were needed to ascertain the intensity of the infection. We have limited number of machines as each of them cost around Rs 25-30 crore. We also have limited number of radiologists to operate these machines, and so our health department has tied up with private players.”
Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar additionally identified that just one MRI machine was purchased by the federal government within the final two years.
“Radiologists are needed to operate the machine. We need people to read the reports, diagnose the disease and treat the patient. Only keeping a machine will not solve the problem. It is not like clicking a photograph and handing it over,” Patel added. The minister stated the tools had been being bought in a phased method.