Patients in Port Hardy won’t have to drive south anymore to get a CT scan, now there’s a mobile unit on site.
Island Health announced the machine’s arrival this week on social media, and says the North Island health team will now begin installing and testing. They will then move on to accreditation and staff training.
They hope to have the machine operational for patient scans in December.
The machine is housed in a semi trailer, which could be moved to other North Island health facilities as needed.
Island Health says approximately 1,500 CT scans are required for people within the North Vancouver Island area each year. Until the arrival of the new machine, patients were required to travel out of their home communities to receive diagnostic scans.
At the beginning of the year, Island Health announced $30 million in funding for North Island health care, including money for a CT scanner and hiring bonuses to attract doctors and nurses to the region.
