Vishwajit: AERB nod awaited for installing CT scan machine

Margao: Information provided at the three-day monsoon session of the assembly that concluded on Friday revealed that the South Goa District Hospital (SGDH) will be receiving its own CT scan and MRI scan machines. It was also revealed that during the second wave of COVID in the months of March to May, the Hospicio Hospital conducted as many as 997 CT scans.

In response to a question raised by Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane informed that the CT scan machine was awaiting permission from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

“The 32 slice CT scan for SGDH will be installed once permission is granted by AERB. MRI will be installed in the new hospital, as the site for installation is already identified,” Rane informed in the reply.

It was also informed that plans were underway to increase the number of X-Ray machines at the district hospital. “Currently one 500 MA machine has been installed. One more 500 MA machine will be installed after the hospital starts working at full capacity. Four more mobile machines are in Hospicio and ESI hospital which will be transferred to SGDH when the hospital is fully functional,” said the health minister in the reply. He also said that machinery installed at Hospicio Hospital, Margao would be shifted to SGDH.

When asked to furnish details about the X-rays taken between March and May this year, it was informed that over 3,908 X-rays and 997 CT scans had been taken at the Hospicio Hospital while at the SGDH, a total of 6,422 X-rays were taken with a bulk of the X-rays and CT scans conducted in April during the peak of the COVID pandemic’s second wave.

When questioned over the fate of the top two floors of the SGDH and whether there were proposals to privatise the two vacant floors or to set up a nursing institute, the health minister informed that, “Presently the matter of establishing a private medical college in line with PPP guidelines from NITI Aayog is under deliberation,” adding, “The fourth and fifth floors had not been handed over by the GSIDC due to ongoing works.”