Delhi Govt Hospitals audit finds medical equipment worth crores lying unused

Delhi: An audit of Delhi government-run hospitals has found equipment worth several crores of rupees lying unused, including a specialised imaging machine purchased for Rs 15.42 crore in 2017 at the Delhi State Cancer Institute. The audit was conducted following directions issued by the Delhi High Court on 3 July, 2026. 

The court ordered the audit after being informed that a machine at the Delhi State Cancer Institute, used to prepare special substances needed for cancer imaging scans, had remained unused since April 2022. The bench observed at the time that this reflected "a gross waste of public resources," and directed every hospital under the Delhi government to check their own equipment and report back to the court.  

The audit covered 26 hospitals, including GTB Hospital, Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, Burari Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, GIPMER, Maulana Azad Medical College and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. Several hospitals have cited lack of manpower as the reason for the equipment lying unused, according to The Indian Express.

The Delhi State Cancer Institute accounted for the largest share of unused equipment. Apart from the imaging machine, which cost Rs 15.4 crore plus another Rs 64 lakh for delivery and Rs 2.5 crore for installation, the same department also has an advanced cancer-imaging system, one that combines several scanning technologies to help doctors target tumours precisely. Bought in 2017 for USD 1.3 million plus Rs 26.68 lakh in delivery costs, it has never been used because it is still "under evaluation."

The pathology department at the hospital also has a machine used for slicing and preparing tissue samples for testing, received free of cost from a German supplier, but it remains unused simply because there is no space to install it. Separately, three testing machines used to analyse blood and other samples, including one worth Rs 1.26 crore, have gone unused after the special chemicals needed to run them stopped being available. These three machines are now being written off as unusable, reports The Daily.

Other hospitals reported similar problems. At Dr B R Sur Homoeopathic Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, a fully working ultrasound machine worth Rs 19.08 lakh has never been used because the hospital has no radiologist on its regular staff. It says it is trying to bring one in on a part-time basis.

At Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, a large oxygen storage tank worth around Rs 94.82 lakh, donated by a charity during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2021, has never even been connected to the hospital's oxygen supply system.

The hospital also has two pieces of equipment meant for its planned eye bank, one used to check the quality of donated corneas and another used as a clean workspace for handling them, together worth Rs 22.15 lakh.

Bought in 2019 and 2020, they were never put to use, first because there weren't enough trained cornea specialists, then because the pandemic brought eye and organ donations to a complete halt, and now because the hospital still doesn't have enough trained eye doctors.

On top of this, oxygen machines, breathing support devices, and ventilators bought during the 2021 Covid wave for the hospital's surgery, orthopaedic, children's and women's health departments, including 13 ventilators that had drawn controversy at the time, worth Rs 2.16 lakh each, have all been sitting unused since the pandemic ended.

The matter remains before the Delhi High Court, which is expected to review the full findings further.