New MRI unit still weeks away
Meanwhile, portable MRI machine handling work in parking lot
Patients requiring scheduled or emergency MRIs will have to rely on the Cape Breton Regional Hospital’s portable magnetic resonance imaging machine for bit longer.
The movable unit has been stationed in a hospital parking lot since it was brought in while the facility transitions from its old MRI machine to a new state-of-the-art machine. The Sydney hospital took receipt of the new $2.2-million apparatus in late March, but according to Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) spokesperson Greg Boone it won’t be operational for least another eight weeks.
“The timeframe for the installation that we have identified is estimated at 12 weeks, however, timelines can change with a project like this,” said Boone, who added that the installation team has already been on the job for several weeks. “It’s a process and a project that is highly technical and complex as it involves electrical and ventilation system work and upgrades as well as the actual assembly and conditioning of the machine itself.”
Boone confirmed that the portable MRI machine will remain on site until the new unit is up and running.
“We’re fortunate to have the portable unit for patients who need either scheduled or emergency MRIs and that was part of our contingency when we began planning for the installation of the new machine,” he said, adding that the hospital was without MRI for about a week during the initial transition.
Funding for the new MRI machine was announced by the provincial government last September. The Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation helped raise about $250,000 that was put toward its purchase and installation.
Supplied by GE Healthcare, the new machine replaces the previous unit that had been in service since 2004.
“The original machine served us well, but like any technology, especially in diagnostic imaging, there are improvements in equipment and advancements in technology — the new MRI unit has been described as state-of-the-art in relation to its ability, enhanced imaging ability and its adaptability to larger patients,” said Boone.
But while the quality of the
diagnostic imaging will improve, Boone said wait times for having an MRI done will continue to fluctuate due to both demand and routine machine maintenance.
“There will always be demand and we will always have the volume of referrals for an MRI,” he said, adding that magnetic resonance imaging services are also available in Antigonish, New Glasgow and Truro.
“If the wait times are shorter in other areas of the province and if people have the ability to travel to those areas, then the option to refer to another area is always open, and it’s been there for a long time in terms of diagnostic testing.”
The latest figures from the NSHA wait time website show that the Cape Breton Regional Hospital had the shortest wait time (65 days) in the province for the three-month period ending on Feb. 28. Comparatively, the longest wait for patients outside of the Halifax area was the 269day wait at the Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville. However, it should be noted that the data was collected prior to the regional hospital’s MRI transition.
While the theory behind magnetic resonance imaging dates back almost half a century, the
first full-body MRI scanner was built at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, where it obtained the first clinically useful image of a patient’s internal tissues using the technique.
In 2003, Paul Lauterbur of the University of Illinois and Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham (U.K.) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries on magnetic resonance imaging.