The Hindu : Equipment snags dog MCH

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Equipment snags dog MCH

By M. Dinesh Varma

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Dec. 9. The Medical College Hospital here is faced with a serious problem of malfunctioning equipment, even as maintenance and supply of spare-parts remain woefully inadequate.

The Rs. 40 lakh X-Ray unit, for instance, has been working in fits and starts ever since its installation in 1997 and the multinational firm which installed the equipment had been lukewarm to distress calls, MCH sources said.

It is learnt that the Government is considering a proposal of the Medical College authorities to blacklist the multinational company, which supplied the unit for its allegedly poor after- sales response.

The MCH authorities have also been experiencing frequent troubles with whole body spiral CT scan. T

he equipment, which has been in a state of disrepair for extended periods, has caused much hardship for needy patients.

When the machine required a tube replacement, a spat arose over whether replacement of spare parts was covered under the terms of the annual maintenance contract. The representatives of the Japanese firm took the position that the annual maintenance contract (AMC) only covered servicing needs.

Eventually, it took some strident negotiating on the part of the Health Secretary, K. Ramamoorthy, to persuade the firm to take steps to make the machine operational again.

"We are mooting tougher measures against companies that are callous to maintenance needs'', the Health Secretary said.

Since 1995, the Government has been following a system of bringing the supplier into an AMC for the acquisition of high investment high-tech machines. The AMC comes into operation once the warranty period (usually two years) lapses.

Containing phrases such as 'uptime' and 'downtime' (indicating the swiftness with which the supplier shall respond to an SOS call), the AMC also incorporates a ratio in the range of between two to five per cent of the cost price of the equipment.

It is pointed out that expensive machines age quicker in institutions like the Medical College.

For instance, over one lakh impressions are taken on a CT scan tube as against the stipulated 40,000 images. Erratic voltage also plays havoc with sophisticated installations.

The Medical College Principal, P. C. Kesavan Kutty Nayar, emphasises the urgency of having a bio-medical engineer at the Medical College Hospital to attend to the maintenance needs of failing equipment so that reliance on service engineers can be reduced.

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