Hospital scan gear obsolete
Nearly four out of 10 CAT scan machines in operation in the state health sector are more than 10 years old and therefore in need of replacement, the president of the Hellenic Radiological Society has told Kathimerini. «An estimated 30 to 40 percent of CAT scanners in public hospitals must gradually be replaced due to old age,» Kyriakos Stringaris said, noting that the machines begin displaying «technical problems» after a decade and that their lamps need changing every year or so. Stringaris was speaking a few days after Labor Minister Andreas Loverdos had to be taken to two different hospitals in northern Greece to undergo a CAT scan as the machine in the first hospital had been out of order due to a spent lamp. According to sources, CAT scanner repairs in public hospitals have been delayed as a state committee for health procurements lacks the staff to approve expenditure. According to Dimitris Varnavas, president of the Federation of Greek Hospital Doctors’ Unions, some 70 percent of CAT scanners in operation in Greece are in private hospitals.
