A senior citizen from K.K. Nagar who went to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for treatment was asked to seek treatment elsewhere as the angiogram machine was out of service. There is only one such machine in the hospital. Angiograms are necessary to detect blocks in the coronary blood vessels.
Ravindran (name changed), a relative of the elderly man, said his uncle had been taken to GH on Monday. He had been admitted and preliminary investigations were done and he was diagnosed with a block in the heart. “The doctors did carry out the procedures and it was decided that he needed an injection also. But then, the staff said that the angiogram machine was not functioning. They told me to shift my uncle to another hospital for treatment,” he said.
Hospital staff said that the equipment has not been functioning for the past five days. They were not able to say when it would be set right. The patient is now undergoing treatment at a private hospital.
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According to hospital officials, around six angiograms are taken every day. Attempts by bio-medical engineers over the past five days to repair the machine failed as they did not know how to repair the Japan-made equipment, a senior doctor said.
The machine was installed in 2010 when the cardiology department had also been upgraded at the cost of Rs. 4 crore.
At that time too, for several months, patients had been referred to Government Stanley Hospital for treatment. According to a hospital official, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 angiograms have been done even since the machine was installed. Though machines in the hospital are under an annual maintenance contract, the repair work could take time, a hospital official said.
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As the six-storey cardiology block is brimming with patients, hospital officials said that it would help if the government would consider providing them another machin