Patients visiting MKCG Medical College and Hospital here for hearing impairment tests are returning disappointed as the audiometer, a device to assess hearing loss, is not functioning for over month.
"The machine helps to test the percentage of hearing loss, which is required to get a disabled certificate, patients also come here for treatment," said a doctor in the ENT department.
The hospital receives around 20 patients daily from different places.
"Since we have no other device to test deafness, the patients have been asked to wait till the audiometer is repaired," ENT professor Santosh Mishra said.
A technical snag in the mother board of the 10-year old machine, procured from a New Delhi based company, has rendered it useless, hospital sources said.
"It is admission time and students, who need deafness certificate, are facing problems because of the defunct machine. We have requested the hospital authorities to immediately repair the machine or replace it with a new one," said Prafulla Jagannath Padhy, Chairman of Ganjam District Deaf and Dumb Association.
A similar facility at the District Disability Rehabilitation Centre has not been put to use because of staff shortage, he added.
The issue was also discussed at the recently held Swasthya Bikash Samiti of the medical college.
"We have written to the company to get the machine repaired. We are also trying to procure a new machine," said Superintendent of MKCG medical A K Behera.
