MRI machine officially opens at Palmerston Hospital

PALMERSTON – After 18 months of community donations and pledges, totalling over $8 million, the Palmerston and District Hospital finally has a new MRI machine and suite. 

The hospital officially opened the new machine with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 19. 

The event featured remarks from local dignitaries, hospital leaders, community partners and the Palmerston and District Hospital Foundation (PDHF), support from which has made the achievement possible. 

“It is no small feat to raise $8 million plus … for this important service locally,” Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae said during the ceremony. 

He noted he was pleased to see the province commit $1.1 million to the upstart of the MRI machine and almost $1 million annually to operate it and pay staff.

“The non-emergency wait times, just for this area, for MRIs, before this machine was here was almost 130 days,” Rae said.

“This will obviously help reduce that and more importantly, it helps reduce the travel time.” 

The machine arrived on July 3 and since then construction and testing have taken place to get the suite ready. 

Staff expect to start with approximately 12 scans per day, with capacity increasing as the technologist team and processes become fully established.

A day prior to the official  opening, when an inpatient needed a scan, “We were able to perform that scan locally [and] come up with a firm diagnosis with this brand-new technology,” said radiologist Dr. Samir Patel.

“Two weeks ago, that patient would have had to be moved into an ambulance, transported for an hour with a nurse, stayed wherever they had to go for their MRI … and then get transported back – all while you’re in your worst possible state.”

The MRI machine can capture high-resolution images of soft tissue like the brain and joints – areas that X-rays and CT scans can’t always show clearly. 

The MRI accepts referrals for a wide range of procedure groups, including the abdomen, brain, nervous system, musculoskeletal system, spine, neck, pelvis and blood vessel scans.

“I’m proud of the community that we live in, and the group of people that came together to make this happen,” PDHF development officer Dale Franklin told the Advertiser.

“The province had given hospitals an indication that they were willing to fund more MRI services in the province.

“And so there was an opportunity for hospitals to put forward a proposal that they would like one.”

Franklin added, “It’s the largest fundraiser campaign we’ve ever had in the Palmerston foundation. It was a unanimous decision of the board that we wanted to support this.”

The foundation anticipated a three-year campaign with pledging over five years and “never imagined” it would happen in less time.

“We will still be receiving funds over the next couple of years from people who have pledged over the five years,” Dale said.

Hospital lead technologist Cayly Hardie noted the main positive impact the machine will have for rural communities is the travel factor.

“Not having to drive to the big city for the elderly, that are most commonly coming through for us, I think that would probably be number one,” Hardie said.

“Palmerston made sense to have it just because the diameter around it had no coverage for MRI elsewhere so it’s a broader range for us.”

Patients can be in the machine from 10 to 45 minutes depending on the case. 

The next steps for PDHF officials will be raising funds for the hospital’s information technology (IT) department – hopefully $100,000 – at the CKNX Health Care Heroes Radiothon on Oct. 18.