Anantnag: The patients in this south Kashmir district are suffering due to the non-availability of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) facilities at Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnag.
The patients and their attendants at the GMC Anantnag while talking to the news agency Kashmir News Observer said there is no MRI facility at the hospital and that they are forced to visit private diagnostic centres.
Shakeel Ahmad, a patient from Anantnag town, said, “The doctors at the GMC advised me to go for MRI; however, the facility is not available at the hospital. Now I am left with no option but to carry out the scan at a private diagnostic centre which costs around 5,000 to 6,000 rupees.”
Javaid Ahmad, an attendant of a patient, said that the people come here from far-off villages with the hope of receiving better and affordable treatment.
“This is so disappointing and unfortunate that such a facility is not available at the hospital,” he said, adding that most of the patients return home without going through MRI as they are unable to afford it.
“I have seen hundreds of patients roaming from clinic to clinic to find an MRI diagnostic centre. Once they come to know about the cost, they leave the centre without going through the scan,” Javaid added.
The attendants at GMC Anantnag have requested the concerned authorities to make arrangements for an MRI facility at the hospital so that the poor people do not face a financial burden.
Principal GMC Anantnag Tariq Qureshi told KNO that the MRI facility will be made available at the hospital “very soon”.
“The MRI facility is in pipeline and it will be available in the hospital by the first week of March,” he said.
