Madurai Activist demands CT, MRI Scan facilities in Taluk Headquaters Hospitals

Madurai: Over the past five years, the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) has earned more than Rs 511.21 crore from CT and MRI scan services in government hospitals, revealed a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application.

The RTI was filed by Madurai Health activist A Veronica Mary, who sought information details regarding the revenue earned by the government through its scan facilities.

While the reply revealed that the revenue has increased over the years, Mary has called for a more widespread expansion of these facilities to cover all medical college hospitals, district taluk headquarters hospitals and other taluk hospitals in Tamil Nadu so that the rural population could benefit from the facilities.

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The RTI data reveals a significant increase in the revenue from these services, which has nearly doubled in the last five years. In the financial year 2019-20, the revenue generated from scan facilities was Rs 72.31 crore. This decreased slightly to Rs 68 crore in 2020-21. However, in 2021-22, the revenue rose to Rs 101 crore, followed by an increase to Rs 123 crore in 2022-23. Finally, in 2023-24, the revenue reached Rs 139 crore.

Currently, the infrastructure provided by the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) includes 133 CT scan facilities and 42 MRI scan facilities across government hospitals in the state. TNMSC has set fixed rates for these services: ₹500 for a CT scan and ₹2,500 for an MRI scan.

Highlighting that the government earns a massive amount through these scans, Mary pointed out that these earnings could be used to initiate operations of CT and MRI at all district government taluk headquarters hospitals to prevent people from spending money in private scan centres.

"If these facilities are unavailable at a government hospital, patients are forced to pay much higher costs at private hospitals," she told TOI.

Tamil Nadu has many taluk-level hospitals, district headquarters hospitals, and government medical college hospitals. Taluk-level hospitals provide secondary health care, including specialist and referral services, to the community. They also help to reduce overcrowding at government medical college hospitals.

However, Mary pointed out that most of the taluk hospitals in southern Tamil Nadu lack MRI and CT scan facilities which forces people from rural areas to approach private hospitals for these scans and pay a hefty amount from their pockets.

Speaking to TNIE, RTI activist Anandraj said, “An RTI query was sent to Tamil Nadu Medical Service Corporation and the reports suggested that good revenue was being generated through CT and MRI scans. In another RTI reply, officials said that Rs 6 to 7 crore was required to install one MRI facility. Is a patient expected to go to another hospital with an MRI or CT scan facility due to the lack of it in district government headquarters hospitals in Erode, Pollachi, Pennagaram, Ooty, Mettur Dam, Cheyyar and Manaparai. The two medical college hospitals in Kanniyakumari and Theni do not have MRI scan facilities."

Former Joint Director (health services), Dr T Jayapal said, “The taluk-level implementation of the MRI scan facility is being carried out by the health department, but it is time-consuming. If there are no facilities to conduct surgeries or experts and specialists are not present, what is the need for scan machines?”

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