Southland Hospital’s aging MRI scanner is to be removed and replaced by a new $1.6million scanner, believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand.

Southern DHB Chief Executive Chris Fleming said the Southland community had fundraised to buy the current scanner for the former Southland District Health Board 16 years ago, and it had served the community well for many years.

“However, over the past 16 years technology has advanced, meaning that Southlanders have to travel to outside the province for special scans that the old scanner cannot provide. It is now time to replace this very old scanner with a new one that will allow more Southlanders to be treated closer to home, in their own community."

The new scanner, supplied by Philips Healthcare, will be the first of its kind in New Zealand and will include features to make the experience of having an MRI more comfortable and less stressful for patients. This was expected to improve examination quality and reduce the number of general anaesthetics and sedation required for patients who experience anxiety due to claustrophobia or other concerns, he said.

The old scanner will cease operation on August 14 and will be carefully decommissioned and replaced by the new one, with full services scheduled to resume on October 1.

Services will continue to be provided for acute patients who require an MRI during this time.

Southern DHB’s Radiology Department is working in partnership with Pacific Radiology to access its local facilities for urgent scans for stable patients – although the number of emergency MRI requests is very low. Patients who are not considered stable, who require an urgent MRI, will be transferred to Dunedin Hospital.

In anticipation of the seven-week decommissioning and installation, the Radiology Department has been working to reduce the waiting list for planned and elective patients by completing as many MRI scans as possible before August 14.

Mr Fleming said that, as of July 23, there were 226 patients booked for an MRI scan at Southland Hospital. Of these, all but five had been offered an appointment and the majority would receive theirs prior to the outage. The remaining patients would receive their scans using the new scanner. Radiology staff would be contacting patients to advise them of the situation.

Mr Fleming thanked Southlanders for their patience while the old scanner was removed and the new one commissioned. 

“While the old scanner was a fantastic fundraising achievement that served Southlanders for many years, I’m delighted that the new scanner will soon be installed and that patients can be treated closer to home and more comfortably,” he said.