BERHAMPUR: The MKCG Medical College and Hospital (MCH) here has paid around Rs 10 crore to private agencies towards MRI scans, security and maintenance of lifts in the last two years. Replying to an RTI application of senior advocate and spokesperson of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Pitabas Panda, the MCH authorities said Rs 79.94 lakh has been paid to a private diagnostic center for MRI scans from November 2022 to April 2023. The MCH has entrusted the private centre with conducting MRI scan of patients.
Similarly, the MCH has spent Rs 4.44 crore and Rs 5.11 crore towards deployment of security personnel in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively. Besides, Rs 25,62,678 and Rs 16,05,150 were paid to lift operators in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively. In the RTI reply, the MCH said the services were outsourced to private agencies as per government instructions.
Panda said despite engaging outsourced security personnel by spending crores of rupees, the MCH is often witnessing security lapses. Similarly, most of the lifts are defunct despite the payment to operators. “What is the point in spending huge amount of money without the desired outcome? The expenditure made by the MCH from public exchequer has gone waste,” he alleged.
Expressing dismay over payment to the private diagnostic centre, Panda said the MCH has adequate MRI scan machines. However, it entrusted the private centre with conducting the scans on the pretext of defunct MRI machines at the MCH. “Instead of repairing the defunct MRI machines, the MCH hired services of the private centre to hoodwink people. Surprisingly, neither the administration nor the elected representatives raised objection to it,” he claimed.
Even the MCH’s Swasthya Bikash Samiti, which is headed by the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (South) and comprises the Ganjam collector, Berhampur sub-collector and a host of senior officers, did not bother to check the huge expenditure, Panda alleged.
MKCG MCH is the referral hospital for 10 southern districts. Besides, people of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh also depend on it. The vast MCH campus has over a dozen of multi-storied buildings.