Nandurbar, Oct 28 (The Indian Express): The tribal district of Nandurbar does not have a single MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, facility forcing several referrals to government hospitals in the nearby districts. Not just government hospitals, district officials said, even private hospitals in the district do not have MRI facilities for patients. The need to fill up posts for technicians and lack of basic diagnostic test facilities came to the fore with eight-year-old Ravita Valvi’s case who fell off a tree in Dhadgaon block’s Khadkiya village on September 29 and suffered a spinal fracture. The tribal girl had to be repeatedly referred for treatment and is paralysed waist down.

In almost a month, Ravita has been taken to four hospitals over 467 kms away from Nandurbar to Mumbai.

Now, she is awaiting a spinal surgery to decompress the cord in her spinal bone at Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital in Mumbai. Doctors are waiting for documentation under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana so that she can be treated for free. “We also need to improve her condition before surgery. She is malnourished,” said orthopedic surgeon Dr Swapnil Keny.

The situation in Nandurbar is similar to Dhule where patients have to be referred to private facilities for an MRI.

“For all cases where MRI is required, we have no option but to refer patients to other districts,” said Dr Raghunath Bhoe, Nandurbar Civil Surgeon.

He added that even if a machine is procured, the civil

hospital would require technicians and expert doctors for conducting the tests and analysing results. MRI is used to conduct detailed imaging of organs and tissues, specially soft tissues and bones. It is often used in accident cases and when brain scans are needed.

“Unless there is a medical college, an MRI facility cannot be set up. In the public health department, district and rural hospitals do not have MRI. It is a heavy machine. Only medical colleges procure it,” said Dr Satish Pawar, the director of the Directorate of Health Services. According to him, civil hospitals are supposed to provide primary treatment only.

On Thursday, The Indian Express reported about the plight of Ravita’s family members who have been running from one hospital to another for her treatment.

In Dhadgaon, a block-level meeting was held on Friday to discuss the issue of doctors’ vacancies in government hospitals. In Dhadgaon Rural Hospital, where Ravita was first taken, there is no superintendent and one out of three medical officers’ post is vacant. The post of a technician to conduct X-rays is also vacant rendering the X-ray machine useless.

Ravita was referred to the Nandurbar civil hospital, two hours away from Dhadgaon. In the civil hospital, an X-ray facility is available but there is no MRI machine.