A fundraising campaign is currently underway to help the Penticton Regional Hospital purchase a new CT scanner such as the one pictured above. Photo submitted - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-January 13, 2010
By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times
“The goal was $1.5 million. Now, we’re going to try to reach $1.7,” said Janice Perrino, executive director of the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation, about the fundraising drive underway to raise enough money to buy a new CT scanner for Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH).
“It looks at bones, muscles, heart…” said Perrino, explaining the new imaging device would help to diagnose a huge range of medical issues, from Alzheimer’s disease to multiple sclerosis, to broken limbs – and with much less radiation than the current machine.
The current scanner, which will be replaced, serves nearly 90,000 residents from Summerland south to Penticton, Oliver and Osoyoos and over to Keremeos and Princeton.
In 2008, 11,063 diagnostic scans were performed at PRH with 5,000 first-time patients.
The old scanner at the hospital is 10 years old – so old that they are having trouble finding replacement parts for the machine, Perrino said.
Plus, the fact that the new technology gives off less radiation – at least 40 per cent less –is an important factor particularly when it comes to treating people under the age of 25.
Also, the new technology will allow the possibility of doing CT colonography, CT angiography instead of an angiogram and advanced lung analysis.
“Head scans that currently take five minutes today will take 45 seconds in the future and will allow manipulations of images and instantaneously zero in on any area no matter how large or small,” Perrino said.
The original goal was to raise $1.5 million to buy the machine and that goal was reached late last year.
But the budget for buying the machine was set approximately a year ago, Perrino said, and $1.7 million is more in line with the amount needed.
Osoyoos groups and individuals were a big part of the fundraising.
“Osoyoos residents raised close to $30,000 for this project this year,” she said, clarifying that was only since June.
It’s an important health issue for Osoyoos residents also.
The CT scanner in Penticton is the closest one to Osoyoos and serves residents all over the Southern Interior.
And while the fundraising is still going on, the head of the hospital’s imaging department and some doctors are already doing some shopping for the new machine.
They are heading to Vancouver in February to check out some of the current technology and then likely to Alberta as well, Perrino said.
The ultimate goal is to have the new machine in place and into service by August.
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