Four of seven MRI machines are functioning in government hospitals – Agyeman-Manu

Four out of the seven Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines in seven government hospitals are working, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health, has said

The MRI is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said the hospitals, which had functional MRI machines, included the University of Ghana Medical Centre, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.

Three quasi-government hospitals also had functioning MRI machines.

He, however, noted that the one at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital had been down for the past one week, awaiting replacement of a defective component, which the Hospital had ordered through a local agent.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said this on the Floor of Parliament in an answer to a question by Mr James Klutse Avedzi, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North.

He asked the Minister how many MRI machines were functional in government hospitals throughout the country and what steps were being taken to increase the number in the country.

The Tamale, Ho and Cape Coast teaching hospitals have non-functional MRI machines with the one for Tamale not being functional since 2016.

Those machines required major repairs and refilling of helium to cool down the magnet after repairs.

He said the estimated cost of the repairs was not of economic benefit and that the best option was replacement.

He said MRI machine at the Ho Teaching Hospital had been down since 2015 and that there was another one at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, which had never worked even after installation in 2014.

He said quasi-government hospitals were hospitals owned by government institutions such as the Bank of Ghana, GCB Bank, Cocobod and the Maritime Authority.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said though the quasi-government hospitals belong to the Government, they were not directly under the purview of the Ministry of Health but under the purview of their boards.

“That is why we call them quasi-government hospitals”.

The Minister said the Government was planning to increase the number of MRI machines and that some of the new regional hospitals would also get it.

These include the Serwaa Regional Hospital in the Ashanti Regional, Tema Regional Hospital in the Greater Accra Region, and the Afia Nkwanta Governmental Hospital in the Western Region.