CT Scanner top priority for health care foundation
Support coming from St. Lazare:
July 15, 2024, 10:20 am
Kevin Weedmark and Ashley Bochek
A new CT scanner for Moosomin is the top priority for the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation, and support is coming in from as far away as St. Lazare.Proceeds from a walk-a-thon in St. Lazare this fall will go to the CT scanner fund.
Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation chair Bill McPherson and vice-chair Larry Tomlinson say the foundation is working hard to bring a CT scanner to Moosomin and have a meeting coming up with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) to discuss the scanner.
McPherson says the first discussion of a CT scanner in Moosomin began in 2018.
“It started in 2018, the foundation had purchased a portable x-ray machine for the hospital, it started out as $115,000 and they finally got it and in that short time inflation had it up to $140,000. At that time, in 2018, our current x-ray machine was already 10 years old. I asked what the lifespan was of that and the SHA person said, ‘By the time that thing wears out it will be MRI’s and CT scans, that x-ray technology is so archaic and the future will be MRI and CT’s—this is the future and we aren’t even close.”
Unannounced in Provincial Budget
Tomlinson says the foundation discussed the CT scanner with the government last year, but was not announced in the provincial budget in March.
“We went after the government and we had the understanding that it would come out in the provincial budget, then they announced the budget and it wasn’t in it, but then come and talked to us and said, ‘It is not in the budget, but it is approved to go ahead,’ Tomlinson said.
The government’s plan was for Moosomin to work with a private company, or for the foundation to pay for the equipment, but a promised letter to lay out how the plan would work still has not arrived from the government.
McPherson adds, “That was March 18 we met with them, the day before the budget. It wasn’t in the budget, but they said that we could go ahead. The government doesn’t want to pay the capital cost, they want us to find a private supplier, which is fine. We just want it to get here and be available to this area.”
McPherson says the foundation was told in March they would be receiving a letter regarding the CT scanner. “They said there will be a letter arriving in two to three weeks—is what they told us on March 18. We have not seen this letter. Then, when we met with Ingrid—Tim MacLeod’s assistant—they assumed we had been working with a private company but we’re still waiting for the letter for direction. There seems to be a disconnect between the health ministry and the SHA.”
“Between Hindley (the former Rural and Remote Health Minister) and MacLeod something was lost because Hindley was onboard and then all of a sudden MacLeod is the Rural Health Minister and he didn’t seem to know anything about it,” Tomlinson explained.
McPherson says the foundation is supportive of the CT scanner and the steps needed to help the project move along. “We should have been working on that room being lined with lead right now since they announced it in March. Once that room is lined and the equipment comes there you go. We’ve already voted on the Foundation board to pay people to get training and that should be started now. We just need the go ahead from the government.”
Moosomin and area benefits
McPherson and Tomlinson say a CT scanner would serve the surrounding area and release pressure off other centres with waitlists for a CT scan.
“This area here is in between everybody,” McPherson said. “The number of people on waitlists for scans and MRI’s is phenomenal and it is just getting worse. Why shouldn’t the doctors and staff here at our hospital have a CT scanner, it is new technology.”
“We meet with the doctors all the time and they’re sending people for scans that they need anywhere they can,” Tomlinson explains. “They’re going to Brandon, Yorkton, Estevan, Regina, and there are people that are waiting months to get scans and this area in particular is one of the worst.”
McPherson says the CT scanner would help doctors treat patients in Moosomin. “You would think with the amount of people waitlists the government would want to add another CT scan in the area. It saves lives, if you had an accident we could get a CT scan and they wouldn’t have to guess what is wrong with you they could see if there are any internal injuries. I asked one of the doctors about it and asked, ‘What bothers you without having a scan?’ She said, ‘Physical injuries you can see, but sometimes if you let them go you don’t know what is happening internally.’
Tomlinson adds, “Also, with the stroke protocol, if we had a CT scanner then they know which exact medicine to give you to offset the symptoms of a stroke. Every time we turn around though we seem to run into a wall.”
Prepared for CT scanner
Tomlinson says they have prepared for staffing to operate the CT scanner once it is in Moosomin.
“Hindley told me before he left that day after touring the hospital, ‘If a scanner goes in the hospital, don’t let what happened in Melfort happen here.’ Melfort put in the scanner, but then had no one to operate it,” Tomlinson explains. “So, we did that legwork—we had three students lined up who were in school and would come back.”
McPherson adds Moosomin has a greater catchment area than Melfort who has a CT scanner. “Now, Melfort has gone to 24/7 coverage after taking the time to train the doctors. Melfort has nine doctors and we have fourteen and our catchment area is 58,000 and their’s is 33,000. Melfort has 6,000 people and Moosomin is just a town with 3,500—that is the problem the government doesn’t understand Moosomin takes in a huge catchment area.”
Long road to a CT scanner
McPherson says Moosomin is not the only community in Saskatchewan which has struggled to get a CT scanner.
“Melfort struggled for a lot of years trying to get their CT scanner as well,” McPherson said. “It took Melfort nine years—we have been working on five or six years now. It seems like there is always something, I don’t get it, the scanner will help people. It is a good thing, and it’s new technology so let’s get it out there for doctors and use it. It would help speed things up in the hospital and it would attract doctors here with new technology available.
McPherson says the foundation is waiting on a letter from the government to officially begin fundraising for the CT scanner.
“It hasn’t been announced or put in black and white because of the ghost letter (the letter from the government that has not yet arrived)—until we have something in print with a signature on the bottom we can’t legally fundraise, but people are generously making donations anyways. We have $237,000 in an account that has been given to us in a holding fund—all voluntary from the community. I think that helped encourage the government.”
Next steps
McPherson and Tomlinson meet with SHA’s Head of Imaging at the end of the month to discuss the CT scanner.
“We have a meeting with the Head of Imaging at SHA, Alex Shirley, on July 29. Larry, Trent Trescott (Area Director with SHA), and I will be meeting with her then,” McPherson said.
Tomlinson says they’re hoping the meeting helps. “We have gone in every direction we can so hopefully when we talk with her it helps. Part of the frustrating part too—SHA didn’t put us in contact with her, then suddenly Trent came up with her and says this is who we need to talk to. We have been going the political route through the chiefs of staff and ministers so now we will try the other way.”
McPherson explains the CT scanner will hopefully go in the existing ultrasound room. “We’re hoping to put it in the hospital—in the ultrasound room. We do have to line the ceiling and three walls—there is only one wall lined with lead against the x-ray room.”
Tomlinson adds, “That is where the doctors suggested where it needs to be. The foundation will be involved, but the lead lining should be in the process right now.”
St. Lazare walk-a-thon
St. Lazare has decided to give their Walk-A-Thon fundraiser donations to the Moosomin CT scanner this year.
“St. Lazare choosing the CT scanner as fundraiser choice this fall, that proves a point that communities in Manitoba and around here want this thing so bad and they will do anything to help with it,” McPherson said. “That is so good they’re doing this. Build it and people will come. We pull from areas we don’t even realize sometimes.”
“I think we will be surprised of how many people will come from Manitoba to use the CT scanner. They’re so busy all the time in town,” Tomlinson said.
Fortunate to have good health care services
McPherson says Moosomin is lucky to have the amazing doctors and hospital available here.
“We are so lucky to have the doctors we have in town. They’re just such good people. We are so fortunate here. People know they can come to Moosomin and get looked after one way or another. They’re never going to turn anyone away.
“Everybody is onboard for the CT scanner it is just when is it going to happen.”
