Machines for sickle cell diagnosis never used by the hospital – RTI reply
4 Dec, 2012The reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH), Nagpur has purchased the equipment for prenatal diagnosis of sickle cell disease but has never used it because it doesn’t have any separate laboratory for sickle cell testing.
The reply shows that the hospital has been purchasing costly machinery since 2001 worth lakhs of rupees. The last purchase was made in 2009-10 costing Rs. 3,79,460.
The prenatal diagnostic services of sickle cell were offered at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) as a part of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) project. But after the shutdown of the services available at GMCH, the region badly needs the prenatal testing facility.