Karnataka government is now faced with the dual challenge of shortage of trained lab personnel and unused medical equipment installed in hospitals across the state.  The state had invested in the latest medical equipment in 2011 across the hospitals but needs 377 lab technicians and 37 X-ray machine operators to be recruited to operate these equipment.

The high-priced scanning equipment across the government and district hospitals in the state are being operated by doctors. We see a need to fill up the vacant posts of the lab technicians at the earliest to avoid inconvenience to the patients. The non availability of the trained skilled technicians was a bane to the government hospitals in the state. We have to ensure that all the government hospitals accessed by the poor patients were equipped with latest equipment to ensure speedy diagnosis and faster access to treatment, says UT Khader, minister for health and family welfare.

Although the recruitment process for filling 377 posts of the lab technicians and 37 x-ray machine technicians is underway, it will take a while to see that these personnel will begin to operate these equipment. The government has started the recruitment process. Personnel for operating scanning machines too are being recruited,  Minister Khader, adds.

These equipment are 51 ICU ventilators, 68 ECG machines, 20 ultrasound scanner, 25 emergency resuscitation  kit, 216 pulse oximetre, 253 laryngoscope adult, 317 laryngoscope –baby, 4 blood gas analyzer, 16 urine analyzer, 42 centrifuge, 8 portable ECG machines, 9 coagulator, 19, hematology cell counter, 9 platelet agitator, 14 plasma expressor, 12 operating laproscope, 13, anesthesia workstation, 59 Boyle’s apparatus, 90 phototherapy unit, 26 baby incubator, 10 keratometre, 22 operating microscope, 17 auto refractor metre, 21 vision drum and 5 tonometre.

The situation in some hospitals is so acute that doctors are now taking the role as operators in the interest of patients, he said in the state assembly recently.

The minister pointed out that over Rs. 100 crore was spent to purchase these equipments to provide the advanced test and diagnostic systems across the government hospitals to enhance the quality of healthcare for poor patients. The minster admitted that the posts of the operators and lab technicians were vacant in many government including those in the districts and efforts to fill up these vacancies were on.

In addition, the government hospitals in the state have been asked to enlist the requirements in terms of medical equipment so that the patient care is not hampered, he says.