OGH docs rue as medical equipment conk off

Hyderabad: Doctors working in Osmania General Hospital (OGH) are facing a peculiar situation for some time now. Nearly, 500 bio-medical and diagnostic equipment are in need of repairs and spares replacement because of which impact is seen on healthcare services. Laparoscopes, ventilators, endoscopes, BP/Pulse monitors, X-ray units, CT scan machine etc are some in this list.

The firm which was given the responsibility of maintenance and repairs of all the equipment is not able to address the repair complaints promptly and hence the issue.Diagnostic report evaluation is very crucial for doctors to assess the patient’s condition and further medical treatment. Due to non-functioning of some of the equipment, patients are being advised to get some diagnostic tests done outside. 

PG doctors, on duty in different shifts said that one of the reasons for patient relatives’ outbursts and abuses against medical staff was partly linked to non-functioning of the equipment as they were made to spend money from their own pockets to get the tests done outside.T JUDA chairman Dr P S Vijayender Goud said that on behalf of the junior doctors a letter was submitted to higher officials in the department to address the issue on priority basis. 

The doctors said that contractor Faber Sindoori Bio-Medical Engineering Services failed to do the repair and maintenance job entrusted by the Health Department.According to senior doctors, the contractor was sending an executive who was checking the equipment and later submitting a report on the spare part to be replaced. 

As most of the equipment are high-end ones, the spares are available with a particular company and the contractor had to get them from that company and fix it to the defective machine to make it functional. However, this process was not happening for several months because of which the hospital administration itself got some equipment like MRI Scan machine repaired on its own.

Dr Pandu Naik, chairman of OGH medical JAC said that all teaching hospitals like Osmania, Gandhi, MGM were facing problems on equipment maintenance and repairs as the same firm contractor Faber Sindoori was given the contract by the department.He lamented that heads of all the departments at OGH are facing difficulties on this count. 

“Even if some medical equipment like Laparoscopes are rendered useless due to lack of repairs, doctors are somehow running the show by making use of the remaining ones. But even if they develop problem in the coming months, the situation will become problematic. Hence, the need of the hour is to get the repairs done at the earliest for smooth functioning of healthcare services at Osmania,” he said.