Warangal: CT scan loot amid Covid-19 scare

Warangal: Transparency in healthcare system is nothing but a mirage. The situation worsened even more since coronavirus pandemic peaked. Covid-19 scare has made way for private hospitals and diagnostic centres to loot the patients in the name of Computed Tomography (CT) scans.

Using the pretext that the CT scan is an efficient tool to diagnose Covid-19, the hospital managements are insisting the patients to get the scan done. The moot point is that irrespective of the disease from which the patient was suffering, they have been advised to get a CT scan done for further treatment. In fact, some hospital managements have made it mandatory to admit the patients.

Doctors prescribing unwarranted diagnostic tests and medication is not a new phenomenon but what is agonising is that squeezing the patients in the name of CT scan as Covid-19 screening test.

"As all the viral flu characteristics include pneumonia, cough, fever etc, it's difficult for a doctor to confirm Covid-19 based on a CT scan report. The CT scan tool is being overused.

Neither the World Health Organisation (WHO) nor the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines suggest the confirmation of Covid-19 based on CT scan or High-Resolution CT scan. To conclude, it needs to be correlated with the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test," Dr Srinivas Ramaka, a renowned consultant cardiologist, Srinivasa Heart Centre, Hanamkonda, told The Hans India.

The State-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital (MGMH), which now houses Covid-19 special ward, has no HRCT facility. The patients have to depend on private diagnostic centres. Even those patients suffering from seasonal diseases were forced to undergo the CT scan, which costs anywhere around Rs 5,000. The diagnostic centres offer 20 to 30 per cent of scan cost to the doctors as commission, it's learnt.

"The alleged nexus between the doctors and the diagnostic centres and the hospital managements' greediness is making life miserable for the common man. Although it was necessary to prescribe a CT scan depending upon the situation, the general perception is that it's been overused," said, a senior physician, on condition of anonymity.