MRI Service Coming to the Kincardine Hospital
This evening, Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson joined South Bruce Grey Health Centre’s (SBGHC) virtual Community Information Session regarding the capital projects underway at the Kincardine hospital to announce that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) service will also be coming to Kincardine.
SBGHC’s Kincardine hospital site will be home to one of 27 new MRI machines in hospitals across Ontario as the provincial government invests over $20 million to improve access to diagnostic imaging services and reduce wait times.
SBGHC was the first rural hospital in Canada to install a CT scanner, which was installed at the Walkerton hospital, and is now among the first rural hospitals to get an MRI machine.
“Accessing MRI services in a timely fashion in this part of Grey and Bruce Counties has been a challenge, and the installation of a new MRI at the Kincardine hospital will provide a tremendous benefit to the Kincardine community, and the larger geography of southern Bruce and Grey Counties,” said Michael Barrett, SBGHC President & CEO. “We appreciate the Government’s commitment to small, rural hospitals ensuring our communities can now more easily access this important imaging service close to home.”
“With this significant investment our government is helping patients get the care they need, close to home,” said Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron – Bruce. “Expanding access to diagnostic care is critical in rural Ontario where so many have to travel long distances to receive these services.”
The MRI is in addition to the upcoming installation of a new computed tomography (CT) scanner at the Kincardine hospital which will become operational for patients in March 2023. SBGHC will now take the necessary steps to incorporate the MRI into the plans for the Kincardine hospital expansion project, and updates will be shared with the community as the plan progresses.
CT and MRI are both specialized medical imaging methods, used to create detailed images of internal body structures which they each achieve in different ways. A CT scan uses ionizing radiation (X-Rays), while MRI uses strong magnetic fields and radio frequency.
A CT is commonly utilized to view boney anatomy, to diagnosing lung pathology, and is presently the modality of choice for cancer diagnosis and follow-up, as well as assess vascular diseases. CT is commonly used to support emergency medicine because most scans take mere minutes.
An MRI excels at evaluating soft tissue and organs particularly neuro anatomy such as brain and spinal cord. Other examples of utilization include ligament and tendons, and breast. Currently, MRI scans take up to 30 minutes to complete with a focus on outpatients with some specialized emergency coverage.
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