CCpur district hospital : Poor power supply, apathy turn CT Scan machines to 'scraps'
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 04 2013: Two CT scan machines provided to Churachandpur District Hospital in two phases were never installed and now they have been literally wasted as if the costly and highly useful medical equipment have no utility at all.

Notably, no other district hospitals have been provided CT scan machines so far.

According to an official source, the Government of India provided a CT scan machine for Churachandpur District Hospital in 2005.The second CT scan machine was purchased by the State Government in 2010 .

Both the CT scan machines were supplied by ERBIS Engineering Company Limited.

Installation work of the first CT scan machine was aborted due to unavailability of adequate power supply.

A CT scan machine requires 400 V but power supply received at the district hospital was much lower than the prescribed voltage.

The engineering company appealed to the Power Department to provide adequate power supply to the hospital.

In order enable the company install the CT scan machine successfully, Health Department deposited Rs 10.80 lakh with Power Department to provide a dedicated power line to the hospital and installation of an electric transformer of 100 KV.

Subsequently, Power Department arranged a dedicated power line and installed a 100 KV electric transformer.

After this, engineers of the company were called to install the CT scan machine.

But when engineers initiated due process to install the CT scan machine, it was found that only 365 V was received from the dedicated power line leading to cancellation of the installation process.

In November 2010, Power Department upgraded the dedicated power line following which 440 V was received from the dedicated line.

With 440 V available from the dedicated line, the State Government informed the company and asked their engineers to install the CT scan machine.

In reply, the company sent a letter to the Health Director informing that electronic boards of the CT scan machine have been damaged due to exposure to excessive moisture, and also power supply lines of many important and costly parts like detector, x-ray, high voltage unit and patient coach have been damaged and snapped by frequent intrusion by rats.

The company also suggested that it would be better to buy a new machine instead of replacing the damaged parts.

After all the efforts to install the first CT scan machine over a period of five years proved futile, the State Government bought another CT scan machine in 2010 but its mother board was stolen even before it was installed.

Police took up a case on the matter and Health Department suspended one X-Ray technician, one Grade IV employee and another staff.

One CT scan machine costs more than one crore but what one sees at Churachandpur District Hospital is complete wastage of two costly CT scan machines due to utter inefficacy on the part of authorities concerned.

Although police took up a case in connection with the missing mother board, the case seems to be heading to a dead end as little progress has been achieved in police investigation so far, added the official source.

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