The Medical Department has commissioned two new x-ray machines to help boost the quality of healthcare services being offered by the company.
The two pieces of modern digital x-ray equipment will be stationed at ArcelorMittal Hospitals in Buchanan and Yekepa.
The commissioning of the new medical equipment comes at a time when the two manual x-ray machines previously used in the medical facilities have undergone consistent repairs and were outlived.
Dr. Garfee Williams, ArcelorMittal Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer disclosed that the commissioning of the new equipment shows that the company prioritizes quality healthcare services for its workforce.
He said the new digital x-ray machines are more environmentally friendly as they produce less amount of radiation.
“It’s more suitable for bed-side; it’s mobile; it is battery operated; it has a wireless panel detector, and you can communicate with the manufacturer. So, we can get online and transmit x-ray images from one system to the other. It’s quite a state-of-the-art machine,” Dr. Williams explained.
Dr. Garfee T. Williams, Chief Medical Officer, ArcelorMittal Liberia
The AML Chief Medical Officer said the availability of the equipment gives the workforce assurance of a more responsive system that they will no longer be referred to Monrovia or elsewhere for an x-ray on a possible dislocation or injury.
Medical workers from the Yekepa and Buchanan hospitals have already been trained how to operate the machines.
“We were able to put in place an arrangement with the company that supplied us the x-ray machines and they sent a technician who did the installation and conducted one-week training for both radiographers as well as our electrical technicians.”
Dr. Williams said the company also invited the medical technician of Grand Bassa County as an opportunity for partnership with the government in addressing the health needs of both citizens and non-Liberians in and around the AML concession.
Henry Kwenah and Adolphus George, two AML x-ray technicians based in Buchanan and Yekepa took part in the training, along with Lawrence Sumoward and Joseph Mulbah, two electrical technicians of AML, also assigned in Buchanan and Yekepa, respectively.
George, the AML radiographer assigned in Yekepa expressed gratitude to the company for the opportunity to gain new knowledge in operating a modern and advanced x-ray equipment, through the training from a specialist from India.
“We have been working with manual machines. But we are grateful to management that we have crossed that point, and we are now gaining new experience working on a digital equipment. This has given us opportunity to learn new things,” he said.
According to him, with the new machines, an assessment that is normally done in fifteen minutes can be done in one to two minutes.