JAIPUR: When 17-year-old Sunita felt unbearable pain in the stomach for days on end, her family brought her to SR Goyal Government Hospital at Sethi Colony in the city for a sonography.
The teenager, a resident of Bassi, could hardly speak and walked awkwardly due to the stomach pain. But staff at the hospital asked her to come the next day.
“She needed to undergo a sonography for diagnosis of her stomach pain. But they asked us to come the next day for sonography even though she was writing in pain at the hospital,” said Shrawan, Sunita’s brother, looking worried.
The hospital, commonly known as Sethi Colony Hospital, procured a modern colour doppler sonography machine worth Rs 25 lakh with CSR funds a few months ago, but there are no regular staff to operate it. The hospital staff told TOI that a radiologist posted there had left a month ago.
Although Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Medical College and Hospital sends a radiologist to this hospital, there are no efforts for appointment of regular staff to operate the sonography machine here.
Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act), the rules for sonography are quite strict. The sonography centre must provide details of the place, its owner, the equipment, and radiologists and gynaecologists associated with it.
At the sonography room at Sethi Colony Hospital on Thursday, the TOI team saw no radiologist present, and the room was vacant even as several patients were frantically searching for the radiologist to get sonography done. The certificate of a radiologist hung on the wall, and it was that of the person who had left the hospital a month ago.
The hospital has stopped conducting sonography related to pregnancy due to absence of regular staff to operate the machine. For pregnancy-related sonography, a doctor has to fill the details in Form F, but there is no permanent doctor to do so. An active tracker has been installed with the machine to ensure it is not being used for tests to determine the sex of the foetus.
Many patients are surprised to know that the hospital runs a maternal care unit despite it not having a permanent unit of gynaecology and not using the sonography machine for pregnancy-related cases. “I just cannot say how it goes on this way,” said Tehsin, from Azad Nagar, who gave birth to a baby boy at this hospital.
An associate professor of gynaecology from Zanana Hospital takes care of patients in this hospital’s maternity ward, said officials.
The teenager, a resident of Bassi, could hardly speak and walked awkwardly due to the stomach pain. But staff at the hospital asked her to come the next day.
“She needed to undergo a sonography for diagnosis of her stomach pain. But they asked us to come the next day for sonography even though she was writing in pain at the hospital,” said Shrawan, Sunita’s brother, looking worried.
The hospital, commonly known as Sethi Colony Hospital, procured a modern colour doppler sonography machine worth Rs 25 lakh with CSR funds a few months ago, but there are no regular staff to operate it. The hospital staff told TOI that a radiologist posted there had left a month ago.
Although Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Medical College and Hospital sends a radiologist to this hospital, there are no efforts for appointment of regular staff to operate the sonography machine here.
Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act), the rules for sonography are quite strict. The sonography centre must provide details of the place, its owner, the equipment, and radiologists and gynaecologists associated with it.
At the sonography room at Sethi Colony Hospital on Thursday, the TOI team saw no radiologist present, and the room was vacant even as several patients were frantically searching for the radiologist to get sonography done. The certificate of a radiologist hung on the wall, and it was that of the person who had left the hospital a month ago.
The hospital has stopped conducting sonography related to pregnancy due to absence of regular staff to operate the machine. For pregnancy-related sonography, a doctor has to fill the details in Form F, but there is no permanent doctor to do so. An active tracker has been installed with the machine to ensure it is not being used for tests to determine the sex of the foetus.
Many patients are surprised to know that the hospital runs a maternal care unit despite it not having a permanent unit of gynaecology and not using the sonography machine for pregnancy-related cases. “I just cannot say how it goes on this way,” said Tehsin, from Azad Nagar, who gave birth to a baby boy at this hospital.
An associate professor of gynaecology from Zanana Hospital takes care of patients in this hospital’s maternity ward, said officials.
