Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Mar 28: Patients in North Kashmir are suffering due to the non-availability of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) facility at Government Medical College Baramulla.
Patients said that in absence of the MRI at GMC Baramulla, they are forced to visit private diagnostic centres.
Abbas Ahmad, a patient from Baramulla said that doctors advised him to go for an MRI but in absence of the facility at the hospital, he was forced to visit a private diagnostic centre.
He said that it costs around Rs 5000-6000 for a patient to undergo an MRI at a private diagnostic centre.
Irshad Ahmad, another patient said that villagers who come from far off places with a hope that their MRI scanning will be done at GMC had to return back when they are being informed that such facilities aren’t available yet at the hospital.
“I have seen hundreds of patients like me roaming from clinic to clinic to find an MRI diagnostic centre and once they hear about the cost of the scan, most of them leave the centre without undergoing a scan,” he said.
Patients said that poor patients are suffering mainly as they are unable to bear the expenses of the scan thereby their treatment gets delayed which sometimes proves fatal.
Locals from North Kashmir said that there are around 700 health facilities in three districts but MRI facilities are not available anywhere in government hospitals.
Principal GMC Baramulla Dr Ruby Reshi said that they will make an MRI facility available in the hospital hopefully this year.
