X-ray unit to close

Press, 20 July 1979, Page 3

X-ray unit to close

The chest X-ray unit run by the North Canterbury Hospital Board in Armagh Street since the early 1930 s will close. The property, near the Winter Garden, will be sold. The finance committee of the board yesterday agreed to close the X-ray unit, films for which can no longer be supplied by any of the main distributors. The board’s acting medical superintendent-in-chief (Dr R. A. Fairgray), in a report on the unit, said mass miniature chest X-ray screening needs for the district had declined with the devel-

opment of mobile clinics and the use of the Health Department’s unit in Manchester Street. “Any sophisticated tests or any reliable X-rays must be undertaken at either Princess Margaret Hospital or Christchurch Hospital so that the Armagh Street clinic is merely a screening centre and serves no useful function,” Dr Fairgray said. The facilities and services at the Armagh Street clinic were extremely limited and quite unsuitable for following up patients with diseases of the respiratory system, he said.