Nelson’s CT scanner will have enough staff to run Monday to Friday but 24-hour service will have to wait, says the head of Interior Health’s diagnostic and imaging services.
Zeno Cescon is the regional director for Interior Health‘s diagnostic imaging services and he’s heard the rumours the health authority doesn’t have the funds to staff the CT scanner, expected to arrive this summer.
That’s not true he says. Unlike the Kootenay Lake Hospital ultrasound, which recently lost its echocardiography (heart ultrasound) service because of a shortage of staff trained to run the machine, there’s no staff shortage for the coming CT scanner.
“For CT we use X-ray techs,” Cescon says. “There is no shortage of X-ray technicians.”
Cescon says he doesn’t know where the rumour that the CT scanner in Nelson would sit unused started.
“We’re not going to take the [Kootenay Lake Hospital] Foundation’s money and then say we can’t afford to run it,” says Cescon.
The new CT scanner for Nelson. Image source: www.gehealthcare.com.
The hospital foundation led a community effort to raise $1.5 million for the CT scanner.
Along with staff, Cescon says they have a budget for the associated equipment: Everything from contrast material (injected into some patients to make imaging easier) phones, computers and chairs.
Interior Health will run the CT scanner on a regular Monday to Friday service for the first year and plans to offer emergency, 24/7 service after that.
Cescon says the delay arises from the need to train staff in the new machine.
Interior Health purchased a 64-slice CT scanner which is a newer model than the one in Trail, so it’s not a matter of just transferring staff from one hospital to another, Cescon says.
To offer 24/7 service Interior Health needs one tech to be the primary operator and several other techs trained to provide backup and help offer the emergency service.
Cescon says they can’t train all the X-ray technicians at once because it would cut down the hospital’s ability to offer X-ray service.
CT expected this summer
While the new CT scanner has been ordered, it won’t arrive until construction of the new emergency ward is complete. Cescon anticipates that will be this summer and as soon as construction is done, Interior Health will have General Electric ship the equipment.
The health authority can’t have the CT scanner here earlier and store it because some of the equipment needs to be kept energized, which can’t happen while it’s in storage, Cescon explains.
news@inthekoots.net
I heard it takes $400,000 a year to operate.
Too bad we didn’t go for an MRI instead of a CT. MRI has far better imaging, we have a CT in Trail but no access to MRI, and most importantly, an MRI has no negative impact whereas a CT bombards the pt with the equivalent radiation to hundreds of x-rays per scan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_computed_tomography#Safety_concerns).
Why didn’t those in the know ask for an MRI instead Alon?
Apparently we have got a CT that Is supposed to be less harmful than the one in Trail.
I trust those who are supposed to know…docs…IHA…etc who have input to the decision making can lead us orange down the right path.
How else are we supposed to know?
MRI, CT. Does it matter if it runs less than 25% of the time?
Neither technology is perfect and both have their strengths and weaknesses.
http://www.ct-scan-info.com/mrivsctscan.html
http://www.diffen.com/difference/CT_Scan_vs_MRI
New CT scanner in Nelson will only operate 9 to 5- despite years of community concerns about ER emergencies at Kootenay Lake Hospital (KLH).
Available for less than ¼ of a week for emergencies looks like a case of “willful blindness”.
see Glyn’s Take:
http://glyn.inthekoots.com/
Chris:
I hope you were able to read kyra’s piece in the Castlegar Source and the trauma and damage to health that patients endure when the diagnostc services are not readily available. Just to take the IHA’s justification for lack of service for the 24/7 CT scanner at KLH at face value without questioning them or askin people in the field on safety issues is tepid or at least a case of naivety.