TANAHUN: Due to the lack of a trained technician, Rama Thapa, the peon at Damauli Hospital, has been operating the X-ray machine for the last four years.

The post of a radiographer has been lying vacant in the hospital for the past four years. Rama has been operating the machine since 2005, without any formal knowledge of the same. ‘’I have only been oriented to operate the machine,’’ she said. Patients of backbone and legs mainly come for the service. On an average, 10 patients come for the X-ray service daily.

‘’We take x-rays of limb, backbone, chest and head,’’ Rama said. According to Sushil Nath Pyakurel, a physician at the hospital, Rama had been helping out in the absence of the radiographer.

He said the hospital development committee had authorised her to do the job. Prior to operating the machine, she had been given general instruction by a doctor from Pokhara. While in Gorkha Polyclinic and Bandipur Hospital, she performed the same job.

Ashok Kumar Shrestha, chairman, Hospital Development Committee, confirmed assigning the duty to Rama.