CT scanner boosts services at Mareeba Hospital
A NEW CT scanner at Mareeba Hospital will prevent hundreds of residents having to make the 125km journey to and from Cairns.
The machine — the jewel in the crown of the Lloyd Street campus’ new radiology department unveiled on Monday — is expected to treat 800 people every year during “booked appointments” with dozens more emergency cases.
Mareeba Hospital’s nursing and midwifery director Ross Clarksmith said the new wing, which also featured enhanced X-ray and ultrasound rooms, would “improve services to the local community”.
“If someone needed a CT we put them in the back of an ambulance, with a nurse, and send them to Cairns,” he said.
“That meant we had to take a nurse off the floor for that whole time — it could be two hours, it could be five — and it’s not the most comfortable of trips when (a person is) not well or injured. We will stop trips down the Kuranda Range now.”
Cook MP Cynthia Hill unveiled the scanner and said the radiology upgrade had been a “long journey”.
“I made an election promise in 2017 and now here we are $5 million later opening the new scanner,” she said.
“We had to find the right machine for the job and ensure the space makes patients feel safe and comfortable.”
The unveiling of the hospital’s new radiology wing comes just weeks after the first stage of Atherton Hospitals upgrade was revealed with the innovative community, allied and mental health building going into service on September 7.