No Camera Phone, No X-Ray Report Rule at Nalgonda GGH
This is causing considerable difficulties for patients, particularly those from rural areas, who do not own camera phones.
Nalgonda: Patients at the Government general Hospital (GGH) in Nalgonda are unable to get their X-ray report unless they have a camera mobile phone. The patients have to take the photograph of their X-ray displayed on the monitor screen for showing it to the doctors for diagnosis.
The 800-bed Nalgonda GGH has large Orthopaedic, TB, and Gynaecology wards, whose doctors recommend X-rays for the required patients. About 100 to 150 patients are referred for X-rays daily.
Citing lack of radiographic (X-ray) film, hospital authorities are asking patients to bring camera phones to collect their X-ray reports. No physical X-ray report is being furnished to the patients.
This is causing considerable difficulties for patients, particularly those from rural areas, who do not own camera phones.
A patient K. Shipla, prescribed an X-ray by the doctor, without a camera phone, had been denied the physical X-ray report. She had to request another patient, who had a camera phone, to capture her X-ray.
Patients like Shipla are forced to search for known persons with cameras to collect their X-rays. When questioned, staff of the X-ray unit said they are only following the instructions of the higher authorities.
A doctor, on condition of anonymity, said the photo of the X-ray displayed in the monitor screen by a mobile phone would not have the clarity of an X-ray film while examined under the light.
On Tuesday, another issue that came to notice is diagnostic staff not collecting urine samples from pregnant women and other patients saying the containers to collect the samples are out of stock. This happened in the case of pregnant woman Kondeti Mounika, who had been prescribed a urine test by the duty doctor.
Kondeti Narsimha, father of Mounika, said they came to the hospital from Thipparthy, 18 kilometres away from Nalgonda. Staff of the diagnostic lab asked Mounika to come a day later. Narsimha protested that he will have to inconvenience his daughter again, as she would have to cover the long distance. He referred to the recommendation of doctors that frequent travelling is not advisable for pregnant women.
Efforts to contact the superintendent of the hospital did not succeed.
