X-RAY equipment at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) has broken down and adversely affected service delivery at the referral facility.
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, head of the X-ray department, Dr Joseph Kimaro, said yesterday that the machine an automatic Kodak, RPX-OMAT processor Model M6B broke down last week and reduced its capacity to serving 20 patients per day because it can only be operated manually.
When fully operational, the equipment valued at 80m/-, has the capacity to serve between 100 and 150 patients per day.
’It is the largest and more technologically advanced X-ray machine at the hospital with the capacity to serve many patients.
However, we were forced to resort to manual operation to serve the patients who require X-ray services.
He said when the equipment broke down technicians at the hospital worked round the clock to restore it to no avail.
He said that the sensor of the machine ceased operation last week and attempts to repair it since then have failed.
They also sought help from a Dar es Salaam-based firm known as Coseke to repair the machine without success, he said.
’A team of experts from Coseke have discovered the problem with the X-ray machine, but said they did not have spare parts for it. The spares have to be imported,’ said Dr Kimaro.
Dr Kimaro said the hospital has additional two small X-ray machines namely Alfa-Tek and Agfa that are already overworked. Agfa has the capacity to serve 50 patients per day.
He said patients are now being forced to wait for a long time to be served.
’We have to work until 6.30pm instead of 5pm, since the X-ray machine broke down’ he added.
He said his department and the MNH management were working on the problem to save hundreds of patients who flock the hospital daily in search of X-ray services.
