Newspaper Article 2004 – CT scanner an Australasian first

CT scanner an Australasian first

Hawke’s Bay Hospital new $1.6million 40-slice CT scanner has been officially commissioned.

The Tom McCormack CT Suite was opened and the new scanner demonstrated to guests at a ceremony at the Hospital last Wednesday.

The Hawke’s Bay Hospital is the first in Australasia to install one of the state-of-the-art scanners. It replaces a nine-year-old single-slice model.

“The purchase of this machine has been made possible through a most generous $1.6 million donation from a private Hawke’s Bay trust, the Weem Trust, which was established from the estate of the late Tom McCormack (a local farming identity who passed away in 2002 with cancer),” the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s head of Specialist Radiology Service, Dr Sean Skea, says

He says the new scanner will make a big difference.

“For someone with suspected bowel cancer, a scan with the new machine will take six to seven minutes, rather than the previous 20 minutes.

“This is an incredible improvement. For a restless or anxious patient this could mean they don’t have to be anaesthetised.

“With faster scan times, there’s less exposure to radiation and, importantly, images are clearer which leads to earlier and more accurate diagnosis and treatment.”

Someone coming in with a major traumatic injury would previously have spent up to 30 minutes being scanned.

With the new machine it will take 10 minutes ‘‘and the images we get will be sharper and easier to read”.

Dr Shea [Skea] noted that in many cases, patients who previously had to travel out of the district for diagnostic assessments would be able to have scans in Hawke’s Bay.

It would also help in encouraging new staff to the hospital.

Photo caption – HAWKE’S BAY HOSPITAL radiographer, Helen Neil is pictured preparing a patient for a CT scan in the new Tom McCormack CT Suite which was officially opened last week.