159 |
PLANNING FOR X-RAY SECTION |
VA Menon-: NTI Newsletter 1965, 2, 38-41. |
Insufficient technical understanding, poor selection
and poor planning result in procurement of X-ray equipments that
breakdown quickly. Some guidelines are given in this article
for planning and procuring x ray equipment for district level
hospitals. First of all, it is essential to have an X-ray room and
a dark room ready before ordering the equipment. Otherwise, the
equipment would lie in the sun and moisture leading to early repairs.
The X-ray room should be at least 16 feet 20 feet with a ceiling
height of 10 16 feet. It should be painted with light shade
of colour. Wooden panel shutters are advisable. Flourescent light
is not recommended as it leaves an after glow. Dark room should
be adjacent to X-ray room with light tight windows and an exhaust.
Powerline also should be ready before equipment is ordered. It is
extremely important to check the voltage drop and electrical
requirements of the equipment before ordering. It is better to order
a machine which can tolerate a higher voltage drop as it will function
more reliably under poor line conditions than the one which tolerates
only a low voltage drop.
|
KEY WORDS: X-RAY EQUIPMENTS, PLANNING. |
160 |
PROBLEMS OF MAINTENANCE OF HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT |
VA Menon-: J Inst of Engineers 1969, 49, 73-77. |
In an investigation carried out at the instance
of Government of India, Mr Ernbourg, W.H.O. X-ray Technician, in
1960 61 found that between 40% and 50% X-ray equipment are idle
in Government and quasi government medical institutions all over
the country. This paper deals with reasons and suggests a remedy
for improving the situation because when society creates an institution
for delivering health care to the community, it expects the institution
to give fair returns on the investment of resources. When facilities
made available to such an institution are not put to use, when required,
then the community suffers. One of the main reasons for non-utilisation
of available facilities is the unserviceable condition of
equipments. The main cause for this state of affairs is poor distribution
and paucity of maintenance facilities available. These two
reasons made servicing of equipment very expensive. Administrative
constraints under which the institution delivering health care works,
makes the costly service inaccessible to them or creates considerable
delay in its availability. Comparing the loss to the community due
to idle equipment and cost of creating and running a cheap service
organisation for maintenance of equipment, the latter appears profitable.
On the basis of experience of X-ray equipment maintenance in NTI
during the preceding period, the average cost per maintenance or
repair services is worked out. By comparing it with cost of similar
service available to an average institution it is shown that to
effectively cover institutions over a wide area, a cheap service
organization which has units distributed very widely in the
country is required.
The estimated loss of Rs. 71 million can be brought
down to 11 million with annual expenditure of only 7 million. Thus,
a community can gain to the extent of 53 million every
year by way of better facilities. For this purpose an investment
of 3.5 million is required on capital account for creating a training
centre for maintenance personnel and 0.8 million for running it.
Such a centre can provide the man power required for running a country
wide service organization.
|
KEY WORDS: HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT, MAINTENANCE.
|
161 |
SOME TECHNICAL PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH EFFECTIVE
UTILISATION OF X-RAY EQUIPMENT IN NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS PROGRAMME |
VA Menon-: NTI Newsletter 1970, 8, 88-93. |
This paper highlights some of the Technical, Economical
and Operational problems encountered in 1955 60 when the National
Tuberculosis Programme was being evolved wherein considerable importance
was laid on diagnosis of patients using mass miniature radiography.
Technological imperfections seen were: 1) High breakdown rates of
X-ray units 2) Though power supply was available, the quality
of powerline was such that X-ray could not work satisfactorily
in 75% of them. Moreover, running cost of X-ray unit when using
petrol generator was very high. This can be reduced by connecting
the unit to power supply. Reduced sensitivity and specificity of
the X-ray is another operational deficiency. The number of suspects
diagnosed was 7 times the actual number of cases and probably 60%
of cases were being missed also.
In order to solve these problems, the suggestions
given were 1) X-ray equipment capable of working from low capacity
powerlines without loss in standard of performance is desirable.
2) Flouroscopic image intensifiers using solid state panels
which are easy to operate and maintain can probably improve the
reliability of flouroscopic examinations without increasing the
radiation dose. 3) Electronic contrast enhancement of films
are possible and this could improve the diagnostic reliability.
Research is needed to improve contrast perceptibility without increase
in radiation.
|
KEY WORDS: X-RAY EQUIPMENT, UTILIZATION, CONTROL
PROGRAMME. |