When will MRI Machine reach to GTB Hospital as promised by Kejriwal ?

“Tenders done for 5 MRI and 10 CT Scan. They'll come in 4 month’s. It'll take sometime to correct decades of misgovernance.”

These words are not those of anyone else but of Arvind Kejriwal, the head of the Aam Aadmi Party, sitting in the chair of the Chief Minister of Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal gave this announcement through a tweet on July 23, 2016. Now we are in April 2023, which means almost 7 years have passed since Arvind Kejriwal's tweet, but the deadline for Arvind Kejriwal's claim of "5 MRI machines coming in 4 months" has not been fulfilled yet.

There is no availability of a MRI machine in Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, one of the biggest government hospitals under the Delhi government. Patients are sent for MRIs to private clinics or testing labs outside the hospital, due to which they face many kinds of problems. How appalling it is to take patients suffering from serious illness and patients kept in ICU wards outside the hospital for MRI testing! During the 2020 Delhi riots, such a case came to light: a 15-year-old child was admitted to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital after he was shot during the riots. After this, when the child was taken to a private clinic outside for MRI, the clinic refused to do the testing because of Medico-Legal case.

The doctors of Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital has been continuously raising the demand for MRI testing machines. Docter Satendra Singh, who is associated with the hospital, has been asking sharp questions on the reasons for the non-availability of MRI machines in the hospital from time to time from the Delhi government and its responsible ministers through his tweets. However, there is no effect of any kind on the Delhi government and its ministers/leaders. Apart from this, the students of the University College of Medical Science attached to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital are also facing problems in their Radiology course practicals due to the non-availability of MRI machine in the hospital. College students say that they are taught the theory of MRI testing, but there is no MRI machine in the hospital for practical purposes.

It is worth mentioning that the "decades of misgovernance" that Arvind Kejriwal was underlining in his tweet almost about 7 years ago has now taken root within the government headed by him. It is very difficult to predict when the people of Delhi will be able to come out of the boundary of 'misrule'. [Original/SS]