Bhubaneswar: In a significant development to provide advanced healthcare facility to poor patients, Odisha government launched CT scan service to patients free of cost at Capital Hospital here.

With the joint initiative by Odisha Health & Family Welfare department and Spandan Diagnostic Private Limited, the 16 Slice CT Scanner machine was installed at expenditure of Rs 2 crore at Obstetrics and Gynaecology building of the state-run Capital Hospital to provide free service to patients.

The service was launched on Tuesday. Harapriya Behera from Puri district was the first patient to undergo CT scan on the first day after launching of the service. She obtained the report within 30 minutes of the test.

There was a CT scan machine installed earlier on premises of the hospital, but only brain scanning was conducted through it. With the installation of new machine, varieties of advanced scanning including 3D, SSD, MPVR, Bronchoscopy and Colonoscopy will be freely provided to the patients. While the normal scan report will be available within six hours and, the patient can get the report within one or two hours in case of emergency.

While the brain scanning and entire body scanning cost around Rs 2,000 and Rs 6,000 respectively in private clinics and diagnostic centres, all kinds of scanning will be available here at free of cost, said Capital Hospital Director Dr Manoranjan Dash after flagging off the service.

The state government will spend Rs 1,199 per patient for scanning at Capital Hospital, said Capital Hospital Manager Mohit Kumar.

The machine that will be completely managed by Spandan Diagnostic Private Limited will provide 24 hours service. Four technicians and three others have been appointed to operate the CT scanner.