QEH outpatients to go to Summerside while CT scanner replaced

Outpatients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown requiring a CT scan over the next seven weeks will be travelling to Summerside for the service.

Starting Thursday until the end of March, the QEH's main CT scanner will not be operational.

The hospital's current CT scanner was purchased in 2005, and is nearing the end of its life, saidGailyne MacPherson, director of hospital services at the QEH.

A new scanner will soon be installed. MacPherson said it will take several days to dismantle the old scanner, and then there are a number of renovations to be done to the room, including painting and new flooring.

"Our contractor who we've hired has said that they need five weeks in order to do the renovations, and then the company that we've purchased the equipment from tells us that they need two weeks to install and test the new scanner before they hand it over to us for operations," MacPherson said.

Plan in place

MacPherson said the hospital has a "comprehensive plan" in place to ensure patients are affected as little as possible during the transition period.

All outpatients requiring CT scans will be booked at Prince County Hospital in Summerside. MacPherson said the hours of operation will be extended, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, to accommodate the extra patients.

Meanwhile, inpatients and emergency patients will have scans done using the CT scanner located in the cancer treatment centre at the QEH.

MacPherson said it will take some co-ordination to make sure urgent scans are done right away, while not interfering with regularly scheduled scans.

"We do not want to impact anyone's radiation planning as well," she said. "So there's going to be a bit of back and forth to say, what is it that we need to do to make sure that everyone gets what they need in a timely fashion."

MacPherson said the hospital already uses the cancer treatment centre scanner when the main scanner is shut down each month for a half day of regularly scheduled maintenance.

On a typical day, MacPherson said the QEHserves about 40 patients with the main CT scanner. She said with the plan in place, that same number of patients will be able to be accommodated, through the cancer treatment centre and the PCH.

"We feel that we've got all of our bases covered and that there will be no gaps in service," she said.

"The only thing that patients will notice is their scan is going to be in an actual different location."

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