Planning to get a MRI scan done at the civic-run hospitals. Be prepared to wait for two to three months or get referred to the periphery hospitals, thanks to the long waiting list at the overburdened Nair Hospital’s radiology department, which has only one MRI machine.
KEM Hospital in Parel is slightly better, with appointments being given after a month, while in Sion Hospital, the waiting period is of two months.
“MRI and CT scanning machines in civic-run hospitals are facing an excess load due to the higher number of patients. This has led to delayed appointments that go up to over one or two years, which is causing further delay in the diagnosis and treatment procedure,” added an official.
Dr Ramesh Bharmal, Dean, Nair Hospital admitted that since they have only one MRI machine, they are forced to work in a single shift, resulting in patients getting appointments for later dates. “For patients who want their MRI done on an urgent basis, we give contact numbers and other details of MRI departments from the four periphery hospitals, where they can get the investigations done at the civic hospital rates immediately,” he said.
A recent victim of the long wait was Rajesh Chavan, a farmer, who came to Nair Hospital from Ratnagiri. He had to discontinue his treatment and return home. “My brother has constant leg pain. Doctors from the outpatient department (OPD) of Nair Hospital suggested we get a MRI scan done. But at the MRI department, we were given an appointment for April. He could not wait in the city for so long and hence returned immediately,” said Piyush, Rajesh’s brother.
Nair Hospital’s MRI department gets 50-60 patients daily, requesting the earliest possible appointments for quicker diagnosis and treatment. But the hospital is able to perform only 12-15 MRIs daily. “We feel bad telling patients to come after 15-16 months. But there is no other way out as the machine can only perform limited MRI scans in a day. Scans cost between Rs 8,000-15,000 at private centres, but we do it for Rs 2,500. We understand that the patients are helpless. At times, if they can’t afford it, we give them a further discount or do it for free,” said a resident doctor from Nair Hospital.
In another case, a patient who had come for a routine checkup at KEM Hospital was asked to get his MRI done, for which the radiology department gave a date in May, stating the waiting list problem. “My family doctor had asked me to do a MRI as my right shoulder had sustained injury while playing cricket. I had severe pain, so I came to KEM for a MRI. They gave me an appointment for May 5,” said Nilesh Kharat, who works in an IT firm.
Senior health officials said that since the 32-year-old Rajesh Maru died in 2018 after getting sucked into a MRI machine in the same hospital, its radiology department was shut down for over seven months. This, in turn, impacted all MRI appointments. In fact, many in-house patients were in the waiting list to get their MRIs done.
“Hospital authorities are taking more precautions to avoid a similar incident. Moreover, even in-patient department (IPD) patients are made to wait for two months or more to get their MRIs done,” added an official.
