Muhimbili hospital to receive new CT-Scan machine

THE Government has set aside money during 2013/14 financial year with which to buy a State-of-the-art medical facility known by its scientific name as CT-Scan to help facilitate medical services at the Muhimbili National Hospital which has been lacking a machine of a greater capacity, the Minister for Health and Social Services Dr. Husein Mwinyi told the Parliament yesterday. Winding up a debate during questions and answers session before he read the budget of his ministry, Dr. Mwinyi said that, the government plans to buy a machine with a capacity of 250 slices so as to facilitate medical treatment at the hospital which started to deteriorate due to the machine which currently is in use has a low capacity of 6 slices an aspect that it accommodates fewer patients. It is vivid that, now the problem which patients at the referral hospital the biggest in the country were facing would now come to an end following plans to get a new machine is in pipeline in order to cater for the big number of patients who calls at the hospital to receive treatment. He said the current machine which is in use is defective and had stopped from operating for the last 11 months a factor that compelled patients to move to other big city hospitals such as the Aga Khan hospital and others whereby have to pay money amounting to Sh. 300,000/- that most people cannot afford.. He said that the repair for the machine took long time due to that company known as Phillips Medical Services (PMS) which had entered into a contract to repair X-ray and CT-Scan machines at the hospital forced to order the spare parts from outside the country to do the maintenance work of the machine. Either he said the machine is of the oldest type and has a  capacity of 6 slices only, therefore the availability of its spare parts has become a problem an aspect that made it to stop from operating for the last 11 months. Since the last budget of 2012/13 the government knew the fact that, the CT-Scan machine for Muhimbili national hospital was defective and hence there was a need to buy a new one to replace it. The situation has been causing congestion of patients at the hospital who are scrambling to receive CT-Scan services. The Minister had agreed the fact that, due to the defectiveness of the machine, some patients ought to seek for reliable service of the machine to other hospitals at a range of between Shh. 200,000/- and 300,000/-. The government was highly shocked with the news and sought for a solution. Earlier a Member of Parliament Hon. Al-Shaymaa John Kwegyr ( special seat) wanted to know what steps has the government taken so far in order to curb with the increased congestion of patients who throng at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in search of the CT-Scan services. He queried as the situation has taken so long time without a solution and thus make the low income earners to get stranded and unable to afford such a huge expense of money by looking for the services outside other hospitals. Meanwhile the Ilala Member of Parliament, Musa Azan Zungu has called upon residents of the Dar es Salaam city to join with the health insurance schemes as the program would help them cater for the medical services.