Administrative inertia

Bio-engineering labs for Hospitals, wrangled in red-tapism

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Aug 9: From the past long time the health and medical education department of the state government planned to set a separate Bio-Medical Engineering to overcome the frequent technical problems in the diagnostic and life supporting equipments but till date the project hangs balance due to one reason or others.

According to the sources, out of 101 major equipments installed in different departments of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Jammu in which 95 are functional.

It is pertinent to mention here that Department of IT, Government of India has already opened two branches of DOEACC in the State, one each in Jammu and Srinagar which is the only existing repair centers for such equipments.

The problem is more acute in health centres at district level, which had to face a major problem in case of any fault. “At times the machines remain out of order for days and weeks together as there is no engineering staff to take care of these.

Either these are to be send outside the state, or engineers had to be brought from private manufactures which is very cumbersome process”, complaints an official.

Officials said that out of 101 major equipments installed in different departments of Medical College, Jammu nearly 95 are functional, while remaining need minor or major repair.

“This is a major headache as when any equipment develops some snag, we have to wait for the repair work for days together as we don’t have much trained staff. At times just a minor fault puts the machine out of order for days”, said the insiders.

Despite repeating attempts in-charge principal GMCH Dr Aniece Choudhary could not be contacted for his official version.