Health Minister Worried Over Broken Down MRI Machines

The Ministry of Health has admitted to serious challenges with MRI machines in most government health facilities.

Citi News has highlighted complaints from patients who say they are forced to pay exorbitant fees at private health facilities for MRI scans due to the breakdown of government-owned machines.

Speaking to Citi News, the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, said although they are working on dealing with the challenges, he was not aware of the difficulty at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

“I don't know of the situation in Korle Bu, it is my major concern. I have asked the parent company that produces the equipment to come for some testing, and they have sent me a report and I thought it had been fixed. I remembered saying to them that, if it was getting very bad they should find a way to refill and we will talk about it later,” he said.

He added that his office has admitted the challenges and is working to have the problem addressed.

A report filed by Citi FM’s Eugenia Tenkorang revealed that a number of distressed people were turned away by Ghana's biggest health facility, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital because the CT and MRI scan machines have all broken down.

These patients had no other alternatives than to go to private facilities which charge higher fees.

‘EOCO investigates‘
The Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), investigated the breakdown of MRI and CT scan machines at some five major government hospitals across the country.

But the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, revealed that “EOCO is investigating the project that installed the MRIs in the hospitals that are not working. They have not completed their investigations so we haven't gotten any report from them yet.”