Madikeri hosp lacks radiologist

Madikeri: Kodagu District Civil Hospital here has many facilities, including CT scan.
However, patients often complain about the non-availability of abdominal ultra sound scan as the health authorities have not been able to get a radiologist. CT scan is done in electronic mode, and the report is received online. An average of 30 patients undergo CT scan daily, and the reports are received immediately. CT scan is done free of cost here.

However, the abdominal scan is not done here for lack of a radiologist. Patients told TOI that they have to pay a minimum of Rs 600 per scan to get it done at a private scanning centre. Patients from villages said that they have to wait from morning till evening to get the scan done due to rush at the private centre.

According to the district surgeon Dr Jagadish Cariappa, the hospital administration is ready to pay even a monthly salary of Rs1.5 lakh for radiologists. “However, radiologists are not interested to work at the government hospital. They are either interested to run their own scanning centre or work at private hospitals, which are in dire need of radiologists. The dialysis centre at the hospital treats an average of eight patients per day. However, the hospital also lacks super-speciality treatments like cardiology, neology and the like due to lack of the specialists. The problem will be solved after three years as the recently commenced medical college at Madikeri will engage expert doctors for post-graduation classes,” he said.