LAHORE - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Section officials of the Lahore General Hospital are committing embezzlement of millions of rupees from the MRI fee every month, The Nation has learnt reliably. The officials are committing fraud through selective deleting of the private patients' MRIs data which is maintained for the administration about the MRIs done as per day. The fee collected through MRIs being deleted goes directly to the officials' pockets who are running the show (MRI department). Similarly, they are also misusing injections that the patients purchase from their own pockets. The injection is administered to the patient before the MRI test. Each injection costs Rs 3,300.   Hospital sources disclosed the LGH management was handling the account of MRI fee through two computer programmes - one installed at the MRI department while the other at the admin block. The sources further disclosed the MRI staff deletes data from the programme installed in the MRI section so that the same could not be found in the propgramme connected with the admin block. The data of 12 to 15 patients is removed and the fee paid for this purpose is most conveniently pocketed by the officials involved in this forgery, the sources further revealed. Moreover, after collecting the MRI fee from the patients concerned, no fee receipt is issued. It is learnt that embezzlement of Rs 10 million or more is being committed on monthly basis by the concerned staff. The source provided this scribe the names and record of the MRI tests of few patients who visited the department and underwent the investigations. Data of these patients was later deleted from the computer. The department conducted two kinds of MRI tests of a patient Munir Ahmad on September 12, 2008. Another female patient Safia Bibi visited the department on August 16, 2008 and the officials carried out her three MRI tests of brain, spine and contrast. Similarly, the MRI tests of two other patients Muhammad Rashid and Muhammad Ashraf were also conducted. As usual, the officials of MRI department deleted their names and other data from the computer and did not transfer it to the record of the hospital's administration, the source claimed. Initially, the MRI facility was available in only two public sector hospitals of the province - Lahore General Hospital and the Children's Hospital Lahore. Recently, the Jinnah Hospital Lahore has also established MRI Section with installation of a new machine. The hospital management is already probing into an embezzlement of Rs12 million that has been committed in the MRI section. A committee headed by Prof Dr Syed Muhammad Awais and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the King Edward Medical University, Lahore in its initial report recommended penalties for some officials involved in the corruption. The senior doctors involved in the misappropriation, however, influenced the then secretary health Punjab and other senior government officers. Resultantly, further inquiry into the matter was postponed due to unknown reasons. In order to hush up the matter, the hospital administration sacked a few employees including Radiographer Muhammad Amjad. He was transferred to Rajanpur as a penalty. The complaint was again reported some weeks ago when the hospital administration caught red-handed two employees of the MRI department who were later handed over to the Kotlakhpat police. During investigation the arrested employees confessed their crime saying that some senior officers of the hospital were also involved in the corruption. The embezzlement of the department officials can be easily detected by examining the computer's hard disk by the experts, a senior admin officer of the LGH told this scribe. When contacted, Principal Post Graduate Medical Institute, Prof Dr Farrukh Zaman said that he had recently joined the institute and was unaware about such a malpractice. He however, said that strict action would be taken if any such fraud was detected by the hospital administration. Medical Superintendent of the LGH Dr Iqbal Kazmi said he knew well about the corruption in the department and in order to stop it in future he has decided to conduct all the MRI tests of indoor patients absolutely free of cost.