Fort Portal hospital CT scan lies idle due to lack of radiologist
A health worker (R) speaks to ministry of health officials at the Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital on January 5, 2023. PHOTO/ALEX ASHABA
What you need to know:
- Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital serves about 9 districts within the Rwenzori sub region and other patients come from parts of neighbouring DR Congo.
Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital is stuck with a Computed Tomography (CT) scan machine due to lack of a radiologist to operate it and a license from the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) and radiologists to operate it.
The machine is one of those that were delivered by the government to about fourteen other regional referral hospitals in November last year.
“Our CT scan is installed, tested, and functional but we are still waiting for a license from the Atomic energy council which the ministry of health is working on and soon we shall get it,” hospital director Dr Alex Adaku said.
While the facility lacks a radiologist to operate the CT scan, Dr Adaku says that they have sent two of their staff for further studies to be skilled to operate the machine, possibly next year.
Dr Adaku adds that the ministry of health is creating a backup system that will help to interpret images that the personnel at the facility cannot interpret.
The images will be sent to a central place in Kampala to be interpreted by radiologists and after interpretation be re-laid back to our clinicians for use.
“Our radiographers have been trained but they don’t have capability and expertise for interpreting the images of CT scan which is done by radiologists, a cadre we don’t have at the facility,” he highlighted.
The CT scan is a machine that uses radiation to make cross-sectional images of the body. Its investigations are usually performed on the head, chest and abdomen.
A CT scan can show detailed images of any part of the body, including the bones, muscles, organs and blood vessels. It can also be used for fluid or tissue biopsies, or as part of preparation for surgery or treatment.
The State Minister for Primary Healthcare Ms Margaret Muhanga last week also noted that they are still looking for radiologists to operate the CT scan as she commissioned a state of the art laboratory at the facility.
“The challenge is that radiologists are few and I am urging parents to take their children to school so that they can study science courses to get such specialists in future,” she remarked.
Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital serves about 9 districts within the Rwenzori sub region and other patients come from parts of neighbouring DR Congo.
