18 district government hospitals to get MRI, CT scan equipment

BENGALURU: While quality treatment and improvement in medical facilities can be seen in government hospitals in recent years, they lacked scanning facilities for a long time. Hence, the Health Department has decided to establish MRI and CT scanning units in government hospitals in order to provide better medical treatment for patients.

Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “People come to government hospitals for treatment of various diseases. It is difficult to detect some diseases even if the treatment is correct. For this reason, there is a need for scanning units at government hospitals. Now, people are forced to go to private diagnostic centers, but the cost of scanning is high. Therefore, the Health Department has decided to set up the scanning centres at government hospitals for benefit the people. It has been proposed to provide facilities for CT and MRI scanning machine in all district hospitals”.

Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao further said some district government hospitals already have CT and MRI scan units, but it is not available in 18 to 20 district hospitals.

Rao said that the respective medical colleges should make the arrangements. Initially, 14 district hospitals will be given new machines. The total budget for installing MRI and CT scan machines has not yet been decided, but the scanning service will be free for BPL card holders, and for others, it will be under Rs 100.