MRI Scan installed at CMCH
MRI equipment being installed at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday.The Coimbatore Medical College Hospital has acquired a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment costing around Rs.6 crore. It has been provided by the State Government as part of the efforts to modernise all its medical college hospitals.“This is the third hospital to get the equipment, after Chennai and Madurai,” Dean (in-charge) V. Kumaran said on Tuesday.The hospital now needs to increase the electrical power capacity to enable the functioning of the new equipment. “It alone needs 160 kv. So, we have applied for a loan of Rs.40 lakh through the medical services corporation for installing a transformer with a 500 kv capacity,” the hospital authority said.“The loan has been sanctioned, pending approval from the Government. We hope that in due course, the loan will be absorbed by the Government as part of its budgetary allocation for providing the facility to the hospital,” Dr. Kumaran said.
As for space to accommodate the equipment, he said a part of the present computed tomography (CT) scan centre would be used. Dr. Kumaran said the MRI equipment would be of immense help to the poor patients of Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Erode districts who were dependent on this tertiary referral unit hospital for specialised treatment.This advanced imaging equipment has been a long-pending demand of the hospital. Efforts to obtain it began more than five years ago.“It can give clear images of the whole body to enable an accurate diagnosis of the problems. It gives a close picture of the affected areas in the brain, bones and muscles,” Dr. Kumaran said.
“The equipment has only arrived now. It will take three weeks to complete the building and transformer works. Therefore, a charge for the imaging is yet to be fixed,” Dr. Kumaran said.“We are told that the Government Hospital in Chennai (attached to the Madras Medical College) charges Rs.3,500 and that there are efforts to reduce it.As for the charges here, we will work it out that later,” he said.But, the cost in the Government hospital would be far less than the ones charged in the private hospitals.
