Negotiations between the Sun Country Health Region, St. Joseph’s Hospital and radiology diagnostic service providers will delay the startup of the computed tomography scanning (CT) services at the hospital.
Greg Hoffort, executive director of St. Joseph’s, said the new launching date for the CT scanner is now Jan. 4, 2016.
“Negotiations with potential radiology services have taken longer than we expected,” said Hoffort. “But I think we are reasonably close now. We’ll be at the table again on Dec. 3 and we feel pretty confident we can close a deal.”
The scanner is completely installed and ready for use although there have been no live tests made as yet. There have been several mock examinations carried out with the scanner operating at 100 per cent efficiency.
The Monday announcement that Regina-Qu’Appelle Health Region had suddenly terminated a long-standing contract with Radiology Associates of Regina (RAR), has no bearing on the outcome of Sun Country’s negotiations with a radiology services company, said Marga Cugnet, CEO of Sun Country Health Region, a point that was confirmed by Hoffort.
“That decision doesn’t affect our situation at all,” said Hoffort.
Cugnet said Sun Country has an ongoing contract with RAR for them to read the local health region’s X-ray and ultrasound images, but that did not necessarily automatically include the upcoming CT images since that is a separate contract.
“Radiology Associates of Regina had been seeking an injunction against us to provide the CT scan imaging service, but that was dismissed by the court. I guess they felt they should automatically be the providers of that service,” she said, adding that she too, felt confident a contract would be signed soon with a medical radiology service provider.
Hoffort said the training of professional technologists for the CT scanner are proceeding as planned and on schedule.
“We have two operators fully trained and two more right in the middle of the training for certification, plus one more who has just started training,” said Hoffort.
When it begins operating, the CT scanner will generally be deployed on a typical business hours format, meaning weekdays until evening, and on weekends or nights, on an emergency call basis only, until a full staffing
level is reached.
Hoffort said the first two years of operations will see the local St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation paying for a good portion of the operating costs, with the province picking up the full operating costs in the third year.
