New CT scanner to cut waiting lists

Siemens medical engineer John Milburn installing a new $1 million CT scanner at Otago Radiology,...
Siemens medical engineer John Milburn installing a new $1 million CT scanner at Otago Radiology, at the Marinoto Clinic in Dunedin. Photo by Craig Baxter.
A new $1 million CT scanner being installed at Otago Radiology should help to relieve pressure on radiology services at Dunedin Hospital and help Otago residents get their scans in a "timely fashion", says director Dr Neil Morrison.

Otago Radiology is a private firm based at Marinoto Clinic.

CT scans were becoming much more widely used and were particularly useful for looking at the abdomen and chest, Dr Morrison said.

"They are taking over some of the things we used to do with plain X-rays."

The CT scanner could be used to investigate kidney stones, which did not require the use of a contrast medium, and CT colonography was superior to the use of a barium enema, which was an uncomfortable procedure for patients.

CT colonography could be used in place of colonoscopy to look for polyps in the large bowel and there was potential for it to be used in the new bowel cancer screening programme the Government was introducing, as many colonoscopy services were already overstretched.

Follow-up cancer treatment, to look for spread of cancer to parts of the body such as the liver or lymph nodes was another common use of the CT scanner.

Radiographers were looking forward to using the new equipment which the clinic planned to have operating on August 18.

"We have talked about getting one for a long time, but have never been able to put together a business case to make a go of it.

We're hoping with demand that is obviously out there that people will respond to the provision of the service," Dr Morrison said.

Waiting times for semi-urgent and non-urgent CT scans at Dunedin Hospital are about three months.

The hospital has a target waiting time of six weeks for semi-urgent scans and 12 weeks for non-urgent scans.

Otago District Health Board diagnostic and support services group manager Sonja Dillon said waiting times had been up to 26 weeks in March and radiology staff had put in a huge effort to dramatically decrease waiting times over a short period.

Scheduling and booking processes had been reviewed and were now more efficient.

Semi-urgent and non-urgent scans included those looking for the cause of head or abdominal pain, scans for specialist appointments, looking for spinal canal narrowing and screening for weak blood vessels.

The next target for improvement was non-urgent MRI scans where patients were waiting up to 40 weeks, compared with a target waiting time of 16 weeks.

Add a Comment

 

Advertisement