MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday closed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking direction to ensure proper utilisation of ultrasound scan machines in primary health centres (PHCs) in Madurai district.
A bench of justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy passed the order after recording the communication sent by the district health officer to the government counsel, which stated that of 13 block PHCs in the district, 12 have ultrasound scan machines and the other centre at Checkanurani, which has a defective machine, will be provided with an ultrasound machine from Thirumangalam Urban PHC.
The DHO also stated that there are sufficient government doctors, who had undergone one-month training in scanning, at the PHCs to operate the scan machine. However, he also admitted that for secondary health care involving anomaly scans and other scans, patients are referred to other hospitals as there is a need for radiologists or government doctors who have undergone the six-month training programme for the purpose, he said. Moreover, the government temporarily stopped the six-month training programme through a policy decision.
The PIL was filed by A Veronica Mary of Madurai. She alleged that though the state health department provided ultrasound machines to many block-level PHCs in Madurai and other southern districts spending several crores, the said machines have not been put to proper use as there are no trained doctors and radiologists.