The Scarborough General Hospital now has a new CT scan machine at a cost of approximately $6 million.
On Thursday, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the equipment took place at the hospital, along with a live demonstration.
The addition of the CT scan machine brings relief to many, as for months patients were transferred to Roxborough Hospital for their scans.
Speaking at the brief ribbon-cutting ceremony, THA Secretary of Health Dr. Faith Brebnor noted that this machine plays a critical role in patient care at the TRHA.
“The CT scan is one of those pieces of equipment that can really help us with a whole lot. Its capacity to see what is happening in the body means that it can help us with trauma even when we are dealing with NCDs. When we are dealing with cancers, a full gamut of diseases in terms of diagnostics.”
Medical Chief of Staff Dr. Carol Solomon noted the procurement of this new CT scan machine will offer improved services to patients.
“This 64-slice will enable us to have faster imaging, so it is, of course, a shorter scan time for patients, better imaging quality, so we will be able to see detail in a much more efficient fashion, enabling better diagnoses. It will also enable us to do things like CT angiography that we could not have done.”
Dr. Brebnor said the TRHA Board is examining another approach in the use of the machine.
“Ensuring that we use this to full capacity, including providing services to our patients that we normally do free of charge, but the possibility of fee-for-service now becomes a real thing that we can do to ensure that when we have persons who need to purchase the service that we actually have a CT scan that can do that.”
Dr. Brebnor encouraged TRHA staff to also examine how artificial intelligence can be incorporated into the service provided.