MRI facility in PMCH, likely in 2 more hospitals

PATNA: Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) became the first government hospital of the state to start MRI service on Monday. If health department officials are to be believed, two more institutes - Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) - would start the service under public-private partnership (PPP) mode in two months.
Scimed, a Patna-based firm, had bagged the contract for installing MRI machine at PMCH. The tender for PMCH was floated by State Health Society of Bihar. State programme officer of radiology and pathology cell of the SHSB, Avinash Kumar Pandey, said the private firm would provide services to patients referred from both government and private hospitals. "The services would be provided on first come first serve basis and patients from government hospitals would be given preference," Pandey said.
Patients of both private and government hospitals would have to pay the same rate (minimum Rs 1,445 and maximum Rs 5,100) as stipulated under Central Government Health Scheme (CHGS) to avail the facility, Pandey said. Under CGHS, central government employees and their dependents avail medical services at subsidized rates. The machine at PMCH is of 1.5 Tesla capacity. Tesla is the unit of electromagnetic resonance strength. The MRI machine of 3 Tesla, sources said, is expensive, but gives better results.
PMCH superintendent Dr Lakhindra Prasad said about 40-45 patients can be investigated per day, depending on the type of investigation. He claimed that the machine would function round the clock. On the first day, 25 patients registered.
For DMCH and NMCH, the contract has been bagged by Medanta Hospital. Most of the terms and conditions of the contract are same as that of PMCH. The only difference if that the patients of private hospitals would have to pay market prices to avail the facility at these two hospitals, said Anil Kumar, deputy secretary of health department. The tenders for DMCH and NMCH were floated by Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Limited. "While the hospital concerned will pay the fee for BPL patients at the rate fixed under CGHS, APL patients will pay the fee on their own," Kumar added.
As per terms and conditions, the selected private firms would provide radiologists and other technical staff to run the machine besides taking responsibility of the maintenance of the machine. The government has only provided the land for which the private firms would have to pay Rs 30,000 as rent per month. Medanta Hospital has also bagged the contract to install CT scan machine in NMCH.
Asked why the government chose PPP mode instead of creating its own infrastructure, a senior official of the health department said bitter experiences in running CT scan machines in the past led to the decision. "The hospitals found it difficult to maintain the machines properly. As a result, the machines are either lying defunct or are not functioning properly," he added.