The search is over, the deal is signed and St. Joseph’s Hospital and the Sun Country Health Region will have their first computed tomography imaging system in service before the end of the year.
General Electric has been selected as the supplier of the CT scanner, said St. Joe’s executive director Greg Hoffort who was part of a team that was charged with the duty of assessing CT scanners from a variety of companies with the intention of having one installed in Estevan and another in Prince Albert.
“GE won the tender, for the supply, installation and renovations in the hospital to accommodate the service,” said Hoffort. The deal also includes a required servicing agreement.
The imaging device itself comes with a price tag of slightly more than $1 million and the entire contract that includes the renovations, staff training and installation will bring the total contract value to around $2.2 million which Hoffort said was pretty well what was expected.
“Training will begin almost immediately and we will have two fully-trained CT technicians on staff by October which is when we expect to have the scanner in operation,” Hoffort added.
With two technicians available, the southeast part of the province will probably have access to it eight hours a day, five days a week with the capability of providing some emergency coverage, he suggested.
“Of course, the aim is to have more trained technicians over time and extend the service, but I believe that will be the start,” said the hospital administrator.
“It’s a rigorous training regime, but there is a lot of interest among employees, so there shouldn’t be any problem on that end of it.”
It was noted earlier that there is already one trained CT technician in the St. Joseph’s imaging department.
Depending on the pace of renovations, which will be carried out under GE’s supervision, the scanner should be arriving and readied for installation later this summer.
The CT scanner for the hospital was made possible through a dedicated fund-raising and lobbying campaign carried out by local citizens, organizations and businesses with the proposal to purchase the scanner using locally-raised funds, making it to Health Minister Dustin Duncan’s desk about two years ago.
After a few months of mulling over the unique bid, the ministry ultimately gave the green light to the process which launched the action plan that ultimately led to this week’s announcement. The Ministry of Health through the auspices of the Sun Country Health Region will be responsible for the yearly operating expenses.
