Substandard X-ray films irk docs

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 15

A few weeks ago, the X-ray films at the Civil Hospital had exhausted, due to which patients were facing a lot of problems. Now that the X-ray films have been procured, the problem still persists.

Reason: The films are of poor quality. As a result, the clarity is less and doctors are finding it difficult to comprehend its contents.

After the films exhausted, no X-ray was done for a few days. Finally, when the films were arranged (from the department’s warehouse in Kharar and five boxes from the local market), doctors are suffering due to its poor quality, especially of those procured from the local market.

Another doctor from the ortho department said the quality of X-ray had gone down and they were unable to comprehend its contents. “Manual X-ray do not serve the purpose and we need to go for the digital X-ray,” he said.

Malti Devi said she twice visited the hospital to get the X-ray of her husband done, but had to return without it as the machine was not working.

“Now, the X-ray machine is working and when I showed the X-ray to the doctor, he said I need to get another done from outside, as it was not clear. What is the need of the machine if the X-ray are not clear? I cannot afford to get the X-ray done from a private centre. I will wait for a few more weeks and get the X-ray done again from the Civil Hospital,” she said.

Dr Geeta, Senior Medical Officer of the Civil Hospital, said earlier there was a shortage of X-ray films, so they procured a few boxes from the local market and a few were sent from the warehouse.

“Earlier also, the X-ray films were coming from the warehouse, so there should be no problem. In the case of films procured from the local market, they are manual and need some time to finish the process. The manual X-ray film has to be developed and dried. Earlier, only this was used and I do not think there should be any problem. Small difference is always there between manual and digital,” she said.