With over 1,200 outpatients awaiting Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) scans at the San Fernando General hospital (SFGH), former medical director of the hospital Dr Anand Chatoorgoon has renewed his call for the Government to utilize the state-of-the-art scanners lyin.
An MRI scan costs between $3,600 to $8,000 while CT-scans can cost between $1,300 to $6,000 at private institutions.
Cancer patients have been begging for assistance saying they cannot get urgently needed scans at the hospital because a 64-slice CT scanner has not been working for the past six months. Only one scanner, a 16-Slice, remains operational but it does not operate as quickly as the 64 Slice scanner, doing only 75 scans per day between Monday to Friday.
In a paper written by Chatoorgoon in May last year and sent to the Southwest Regional Health Authority (SWRHA), Chatoorgoon said there was an easy way to deal with the backlog of patients.
“There are approximately 300 patients waiting for CT scans and approximately 600 patients waiting for MRI scans. Availability and utilisation of the updated 64-slice CT scanner and 3 Tesla MRI scanner at the Couva hospital would help the SWRHA to address and significantly reduce the long backlog of patients awaiting these radiological modalities,” Chatoorgoon wrote at the time.
But in an interview yesterday, Chatoorgoon said since the 64-slice CT scan went down at the SFGH six months ago, the number of outpatients awaiting scans have doubled.
“I understand that the waiting list has stretched into January 2018 and people are suffering. Many could die. This makes it even more important now than ever that government utilize the scanners at the Couva hospital,” Chatoorgoon said.
He suggested that the CT and MRI scanners at Couva hospital be used for outpatients of the SFGH and San Fernando Teaching Hospital only .
“This will allow the scanners at the SFGH to be made available only for the in-house patients and the emergency patients at that hospital,” Chatoorgoon added.
He also revealed that there was a state-of-the-art burns unit at the Couva Adult and Children hospital which has not been utilized.
“At present, the SFGH only has a burns ward with a few beds. We were calling on the Minister to open the burns unit at Couva because no other hospital has a state-of-the-art burns unit as exists at the Couva hospital. The minister’s decision to keep the hospital closed doesn’t make any sense at all,” Chatoorgoon said.
He said he wrote two papers giving suggestions about how the Couva hospital could be opened with no requirements for any extra staff.
“In the San Fernando Teaching Hospital there are three floors allocated to paediatrics. We should transplant these wards inclusive of staff and patients to the Couva hospital. This will free up three floors at the SFTH and this could deal with the overcrowding situation. There are 230 beds available at the Couva hospital,” Chatoorgoon said.
“With regard to the lengthy waiting list for surgeries, I suggested that we do same-day surgery at the Couva hospital.
Difficult cases would have to be done at SFGH but simple surgeries could be done at Couva only during the day. The same surgeons at San Fernando would go across there and do the surgeries and this will clear the waiting list,” Chatoorgoon added.
He said the scanners at Couva operate faster than those that exist at the SFGH so the backlog could be cleared easily.
On Wednesday, Minister Deyalsingh said patients at SFGH were not affected as one scanner continued to be operational at the hospital. In an earlier interview Deyalsingh said the warranty on the equipment at Couva hospital will be void if it was relocated to SFGH.
Pressed as to why the Couva hospital remains closed, Deyalsingh suggested that reporters ask Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar why she opened the hospital one morning and closed it the same evening. He also said that government was looking at a public/private partnership to run the hospital as government was unable to provide enough staff and funding for it.
The state-of-the-art hospital was completed by the last People’s Partnership administration just before the September 2015 general election but to date has not been opened by the PNM Government.
