RAHIM YAR KHAN: The CT scan machine of the Shaikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH) is nonfunctional for the last one month and the patients are forced to get their CT scans from private laboratories at a heavy cost.

According to the sources in radiology department of the hospital, the CT scan machine, manufactured by a Dutch company, was installed in 2006. It used to provide the facility to almost 50 to 60 patients on a daily basis.

Sources said that during the last11 years, the machine used to be repaired by its authorised technical engineer.

According to the company, the life of the machine was nine to 10 years and it had to be replaced in 2015 but the SZMCH radiology department did not replace it. On Aug 7, a technical fault occurred in its sof tware which was cleared by its technician but some days later its main X-ray tube went out of order.

The parts worth Rs21m were imported from Holland but the machine could not be made functional. This situation forced the patients to get tests from the private CT scan machines at high charges.Muhammad Ilyas, the focal person for the SZMCH, told Dawn the annual repair of CT scan machine was done regularly. He said that according to technical expert, the repair of the fault would cost about Rs24m and the SZMCH had rejected such a high cost because the price of new machine was between Rs40m and Rs60m.

He said a third-party tender would be released within a few days and the successful bidder with the minimum rate would repair it.

He said the hospital had sent a request to the provincial government for a new machine but to no avail.