KBTH Resumes MRI Operations

Dr. Daniel Asare (right) inspecting one of the computerised tomography (CT) scanning machines

Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) is set to provide uninterrupted radiology service to the public following the revamping of the health facility’s magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-rays and computerised tomography (CT) scanning machines.

The hospital is also working on acquiring a back-up for the CT machines.

It has also received a one-year warranty from the service provider, Africano Healthcare, on all repaired machines.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KBTH, Dr. Daniel Asare, disclosed this when he interacted with the media at a radiology seminar on women healthcare, which was organised by Africano Healthcare Service.

The machines which were damaged and ineffective have, through the help of Africano and Toshiba, have been restored and are ready for use by the facility.

“Most of you know that Korle-Bu CT and MRI machines have been non-functional, so with the help of Toshiba and Africano, we will be re-commissioning those two machines on February 21, 2019,” he said.

Dr. Asare also stated that the services would be opened to the public after the commissioning, as the machines were currently being run on trail basis.

The seminar, which was attended by heads of some major public hospitals in the country, focused on ways of innovatively improving women healthcare using cutting-edge technology.

On display at the seminar were some radiology machines such as the Echostation machine for measuring bone density and early diagnosis of osteoporosis and the Landwind 4 dimension scanner with foetal facial recognition features.

Managing Partner of Africano Healthcare, Mohamed Elkaliouby, in an interview explained that the company was first contacted by the government in 2018 when all Toshiba MRI and CT radiology machines had broken down.

“We discussed with our Japanese people to start the survey for all the machines in Ghana and we received a report in March that the machines in Komfo Anokye and Korle-Bu had problems.

“We started service for Komfo Anokye and we finished it in May. We started with Korle-Bu in November and we finished the MRI and this month we finished the CT servicing,” he revealed.

Mr. Elkaliouby also indicated that the company had so far provided six MRI machines, eight CT scans and 64 ultrasound machines in Ghana.

In recent past, activities at the MRI Scan Centre were halted following a breakdown of machines installed by the government.

Patients who were being treated at the hospital had no option but to move to other facilities, mostly private, for scans, often at higher costs before reporting to the hospital again for interpretation and treatment.

By Issah Mohammed

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