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X-ray machine overkill on radiation

Twenty-one Limpopo hospitals operate with dysfunctional or broken X-ray machines. One machine at Tshilidzini Hospital, near Thohoyandou, has been broken since 2005. Separately, the Radiation Control Board has sealed or instructed that the operation of eight malfunctioning machines in major hospitals be stopped. This was to avoid exposing patients and radiographers to excessive radiation emanating from malfunctioning machines. Some of the machines the radiation watchdog sealed are in Seshego, Letaba and Louis Trichardt hospitals. The Limpopo Health Department is now stuck with obsolete equipment, because the companies it had contracted to install them lack the expertise required to service or fix the machines.

The department had previously appointed non-accredited contractors to install and service the X-ray machines, according to Health MEC Norman Mabasa. The technical glitches appear to affect both the fixed and mobile machines. The state of X-ray machines in the province’s hospitals is contained in a report presented to Parliament’s portfolio committee on health by the provincial department last week. The report reveals that five broken machines are in Pietersburg Hospital Campus, the province’s largest health-care centre in Polokwane. An official said the hospital examined about 30 patients a night on a busy weekend. The report describes the condition of the French-made Stefanix CR (computed radiography) X-ray machine that was installed in 2009 at WF Knobel Hospital in Moletjie as “very bad”.

The department told the committee that to remedy the situation, accredited companies were now being appointed to service the broken machines. It also vowed to take action against officials responsible for appointing non-accredited service providers. Yesterday, Mabasa told The Star that the procurement of X-ray machines lay with hospital management.

Source: www.iol.co.za
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