Sardarpur: The community health centre (CHC) at Sardarpur tehsil of Dhar district which has a daily footfall of more than 500 patients including 50 to 60 patients related to the bone ailment, is turning away patients owing to shortage of X-RAY films.
Even health department officials admitted that for the last six months, CHC does not have films for X-ray; the hospital gets around 40 to 50 patients who need an X-ray for their medical examination every day.
“The hospital authority didn’t float the required tender on time so we have run out of films. In cases of trauma or accidents, we need to check if the patient has suffered from any fracture which can be as thin as a hair, which can only be identified with an X-ray,” said one of the doctors posted at the CHC on condition of anonymity.
Lack of availability of X-RAY film at the CHC leading to the gathering of dust on X-RAY machine here, he added.
As a result, patients are forced either to visit other towns or to visit private hospitals and clinics.
According to information, patients here avail free X-RAY facilities, while in private hospitals, they have a shell around Rs 400 to 500 for the same and this is out of poor people's reach.
When contacted, X-RAY lab technician Ranjit Chauhan says that the X-RAY film is not available here or even department os least bother to provide us the same and as a result of that, the X-RAY machine is gathering dust here.
When contacted, Sardarpur block medical officer Sheila Mujalda admitted non-availability of X-RAY film here at CHC for the last six months.
Mujalda added that whenever there is some emergency, X-RAY lab technician often purchases the film from the market for Rs 60 and provide X-RAY facilities to the patients charging just Rs 10 to 20 extra on whatever X-RAY film costs.
