Peshawar: Ill-equipped: KTH’s neonatal ICU deprived of functional X-ray machine

The Express Tribune

The only portable X-ray machine in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Peshawar is non-functional since the last five years. As a result, newborn children suffer greatly at KTH, which is one of the four major hospitals of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), The Express Tribune learnt on Saturday. A senior doctor wishing not to be named said the hospital purchased a portable X-ray machine for Rs1 million in 2007 from a Lahore-based company. “Three months after the purchase, the machine stopped working and is now lying idle in the storeroom,” he said. The company’s contact numbers are unreachable. The machine is needed to perform scans on 10 to 15 infants in the ward every day, but the authorities are not bothered, said the doctor. This is not only an ordeal for the patients who suffer, but an inconvenience for doctors as well, he added. He informed doctors now have to get the machine from the radiology department of the hospital. However, they have to wait to acquire the machine when there is a rush, which affects the treatment of newborn babies. According to a KTH official, many such dysfunctional machines are lying in the storeroom since years despite the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government’s approval to get them repaired. “These machines cost millions, but they are wasting away lying in the storeroom due to lack of experts and negligence of officials,” he added. When contacted, the new Chief Executive of KTH, Dr Inayat Shah Roghani admitted the X-ray machine has been dysfunctional since a long time. “We are aware of this and now I have the authority to order repairs or purchase a new one. Thus, we will order it soon to give relief to patients and avoid inconvenience for doctors,” he said. Repair of such machines will be the top priority of my agenda, Roghani promised.