Gander MRI expected to cut wait times

The first magnetic resonance imagingmachine in central Newfoundland should make life easier for patients and physicians in the area, and beyond, officials said Monday.

The MRI machine at James Paton Memorial Hospital in Gander has been operating since December, but was formally launched on Monday.

Until it opened, patients in the area had to travel to Corner Brook or St. John's for scans. Diagnostic tests involving MRIs are often used for cancer patients as well as those with soft-tissue injuries and arthritis.

"Significant pieces of equipment like the MRI will help reduce wait times, aleviate stress on people, and hopefully allow them to have a better quality of life," Health Minister Jerome Kennedy told CBC News.

Dr. John Haggie, chief of surgery at the hospital, said the technology will help with recruiting new medical talent.

"Really, MR is [the] standard of care," Haggie said in an interview. "Just recruiting physicians is a lot easier, particularly specialists."

Wait lists are expected to improve not only in central Newfoundland, but for other patients who are screened in Corner Brook and St. John's.

Tests that used to take several months to arrange should soon be done within weeks.

"Probably by the beginning or the end of the summer, we should probably be equivalent to, say, Corner Brook, who have been in operation for a number of years now," said Wayne St. Onge, the director of diagnostic imaging at James Paton.