REPAIR MRI MACHINE NOW

WHENEVER preparations are being made for events which involve masses of people engaged in strenuous activities, provision is made for emergency health and accident needs.
This is because planners and organisers of those events always take into consideration the fact that anything could happen which may need emergency medical attention.
Sad to say, though, that we seem to have forgotten about one basic medical need which would have come in handy in any emergency — a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine. It is a machine which is used in medical imaging to visualise the structure and function of the body. It provides detailed images of the body in any plane but does not use ionising radiation.
There was one at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital but it has been out of use since May last year. It went out of use as a result of power fluctuations which resulted in the burning of some key machinery and the corrosion of the MRI machine.
That is how come when Black Stars’ full back, John Paintsil, got injured and needed a scan to ascertain the extent of the damage to his tendon, he had to be flown out to Nigeria to undergo an examination which could have easily been undertaken here.
This, to the DAILY GRAPHIC, is an unfortunate development because we needed to have the MRI machine here before the tournament, since tournaments of this nature can come up with a lot of injuries.
We wonder if the cost involved in flying Paintsil to Nigeria and the medical examination to be carried out there could not have catered for the purchase or repair of the parts required to fix the broken down machine.
It also beats the imagination of this paper as to why a machine as vital as the MRI could be installed without a stabiliser to protect and regulate power to it.
That unfortunate omission is what has caused us this embarrassment, with its resultant waste of our scarce foreign exchange in having to send an injured player outside, not to talk about the cost of repairs.
The DAILY GRAPHIC finds it rather unfortunate that almost 51 years after independence we are still groping in the dark in our attempt at bringing ourselves in tune with best practices in the management of facilities in the country.
In other jurisdictions those put in charge of any responsibility are either rewarded for a good work done or sanctioned for being irresponsible. But here, when people, by their actions, cause pain to others or society, they are unwilling to accept responsibility by way of apologising for their lack of good judgement or take an honourable bow.
To consider that what happened at the Sekondi Sports Stadium last Monday could have been another result of the lack of judgement on the part of someone put in charge of the lighting system there makes the whole issue alarming.
We believe it is high time the government put in place a system that demands high standards in performance from all public office holders. That way, those who cannot cope with the demands on them to perform can find their way out, and not wait to stifle the system and clog the wheel of progress.
We concede that our resources are limited, but we believe if we prioritise our needs we can provide some of these pressing needs without disrupting budgetary projections.
The DAILY GRAPHIC calls on the government to take immediate steps to get the MRI machine issue addressed as soon as practicable.