It takes 2-3 yrs to get an appointment for MRI, CT scan at AIIMS: Patients

New Delhi: Patients coming to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Delhi are complaining of getting appointments of a year and a half at the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Department. Many patients say it takes even up to two to three years to get an appointment for an MRI, CT scan or ultrasound scan at the department.

Sunita Chouhan, 39, a patient from Kusum Pur Pahari, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, said, "I saw a neurologist at AIIMS on October 26. She recommended MR-Face I Contrast test but there was no date available before March 11, 2019." "What do I do these two years? Continue taking my painkillers without getting a proper diagnosis for my facial pain?," she asked.

"I can't get my treatment in the private institutions due to high charges of the services there," she said.Sunita is suffering from a facial paralysis and her mouth and ear always remain blocked due to the disease. She has been experiencing this for the last two years. Her treatment can only start after an MRI scan.

Earlier, she visited NDMC's Charakh Hospital, Delhi, but due to non availability of the facility there, the doctors referred her to AIIMS-Delhi. In sunita's MRI requisition form, dated October 26, 2017, has been given an appointment for March 11, 2019.

There are many cases where patients with serious ailments were being made to wait for years for scans.