Wait for MRI at AIIMS Delhi still up to one year despite 24x7 tests

A senior doctor said that a committee has been set up to procure additional MRI machines for the hospital.

Man Singh was at the radiology department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, waiting patiently for an MRI appointment for his three-year-old daughter Maithili. The 38-year-old, who had travelled from Jalandhar in Punjab, was at the premier hospital in the Capital after his daughter developed a suspected tumour in her neck.

For many patients, getting an MRI scan at a private institute is difficult — these expensive tests can cost between ₹3,000 and ₹5,000; at AIIMS, it costs ₹1,500. (HT Archive)

However, Singh’s four-hour wait on Tuesday was in vain. After hospital authorities repeatedly assured him that Maithili’s appointment would be fixed “soon”, he was finally turned away at 4pm and was asked to come on Wednesday morning instead.

This is an everyday affair at the country’s most prominent government hospital — AIIMS only has three MRI machines, two of which run 24x7 — and the hospital is only able to carry out 20-22 MRI scans in a day. The hospital itself, though, records a daily patient load of 30,000 people on average. The exact number of people coming in for scans cannot be confirmed as this number is higher than the actual scans conducted.

The result is that the wait time at AIIMS for an appointment for an MRI scan can go up to a year, with doctors at the radiology department of AIIMS saying that as on July 4, the next available date for getting an MRI for non-emergency cases was the first week of June 2024.

The AIIMS administration refused to officially comment on the long wait for MRI appointments, but a senior doctor from the hospital, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said that a committee has been set up to procure additional MRI machines for the hospital — a move that will likely ease the rush of patients.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique that uses a magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues in the body. MRI scans are used to diagnose conditions almost anywhere in the body, including the brain, the spinal cord, breasts, liver and prostate.

For many patients, getting an MRI scan at a private institute is difficult — these expensive tests can cost between ₹3,000 and ₹5,000; at AIIMS, it costs ₹1,500.

To be sure, AIIMS does prioritise critically ill patients, and patients admitted for treatment and surgeries. But they, too, end up waiting for a scan — a fact testified by Singh.

“Not just me, there are many people who have been waiting here since morning. My wife and daughter are waiting outside the emergency department,” said Singh.

AIIMS is among the few government facilities in the Capital that has functional MRI machines — a reason why there are long waits for the facility. The hospital, in an order issued in October 2022, opened MRI services for patients 24x7 to control the rush at the hospital.

“There is a long waiting list for an MRI scan at AIIMS, so many non-emergency patients go to private diagnostics centres. Many get the test done twice as the scan results of some private centres did not give an accurate diagnosis. MRIs of patients are now to be done at AIIMS only, to avoid unnecessary delays. Hence it has been decided that the number of MRI appointments have to be increased by implementing the scan 24x7,” the office memo issued by AIIMS in October 2022 said.

However, nearly nine months since the order, the earliest available date to get an MRI done at the hospital for non-emergency patients is a year from now.

“The problem is that not many government facilities in Delhi have MRI machines, which adds to the load at AIIMS. After the order last year we managed to reduce the appointment time significantly, and this will likely get better,” a faculty member at AIIMS said.

Siddhartha Joshi, who first visited AIIMS for an MRI on June 26 but could not get an appointment, said that despite the service being open 24x7, the crowd is unmanageable. He eventually was successful in getting an appointment date — for February 2024.

“They (hospital authorities) said that the MRI facility will be available 24x7. Now the patients who are coming in from faraway cities are stuck here. They turn away half the patients who come in, and for those who get an appointment are getting dates for 6-7 months from now,” Joshi said, adding that he has now sought the help of a private NGO for an MRI scan.

Ashok Agarwal, a senior lawyer in the Delhi high court who has represented several patients from the economically weaker sections in healthcare-related cases, said such long wait times are a violation of a patient’s right to basic healthcare.

“The only solution is to improve facilities and get more machines. People from all states depend on Delhi for its health facilities and many do not have the means to get expensive tests done privately. There are many hospitals which either do not have basic diagnostic facilities or have defunct machines that have not been fixed for years. The poor are the worst affected by this,” Agarwal said.