Otago backs body scanner and deals Click a blow

Press, 30 July 1980, Page 7

Otago backs body scanner and deals Click a blow

Health Reporter

Dunedin could steal a march on Christchurch as the first centre in the South. Island to have a body scanner, and it will all be done without costing the Government a cent.

In February this year the Minister of Health (Mr Gair) announced that the Government would buy a $900,000 body scanner for a South Island service. The unit is to be placed in the X-Ray department of Christchurch Hospital. Tenders for the project were considered on Friday, July 18, but no official word has been given yet on what scanner has been chosen, or when it will definitely be installed.

Five years ago, in anticipation of having a body scanner in Dunedin, a body scanner steering committee was organised in the city. By April this year it had $28,000 in trust. In the three months since $500,000 has been raised, or promised, for a Dunedin based scanner and the project has captured the imagination of the public of Otago and Southland. The target of $1 million is expected to be reached by the end of September, after, approaches have been made to business and other firms in the OtagoSouthland area. Firm contracts have already been drawn up with electronic firms overseas to supply the Dunedin scanner, and, once the

purchase cost of about $BOO,OOO has been raised, the process of purchase and installation will go ahead very quickly. This? will be part of a carefully programmed prearranged timetable which is unencumbered by the need for Government approval. The only stipulation which the Government has made is that the unit which is chosen for Dunedin should be compatible with units in Auckland and Christchurch.

No money will be made available by the Government to pay for annual running costs for the Dunedin scanner. These have been estimated at $60,000, and already $15,000 a year has been earmarked by the University of Otago from trust funds to assist. Interest from money invested after purchase of the Dunedin scanner will make up the rest.

The implications of an early installation of the Dunedin body scanner for Christchurch are significant. The only successful applicant for the post of neurosurgeon, responsible for setting up the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s first neurosurgical service, in conjunction with the installation of Christchurch’s body scanner, is a Dunedin neurosurgeon, Mr S. Bishara.

Should Dunedin install its own body scanner soon, this is expected to influence Mr Bishara’s

decision whether to accept the Christchurch post. Should he not accept, then the board would have to re-advertise in New Zealand and overseas for a new appointee. Radiological experts consider there are sufficient people in the Otago-Southland “catchment” area to provide clients for a Dunedin based scanner. However if these people, estimated to total about 250,000, have access to the Dunedin body scanner they will not be part of the pool earlier estimated for the Christchurch unit. Dunedin has a room already completed in the clinical services block of Dunedin Hospital ready to take the scanner. This has been ready for a number of years. Once the appeal has reached the unit’s purchase price it is estimated that the scanner could be in place by early next year.

March has been set as the date for the opening of the Christchurch body scanner but hospital board officers are extremely concerned that delays already might mean this date would be altered. One board officer said recently that the effort by Otago and Southland people towards raising the $1 million for the Dunedin scanner “leaves Christchurch standing.” Any suggestions that Christchurch people could get behind a $1.4 million appeal to build the much delayed heart unit for

Princess Margaret Hospital. which would also cost about $1 million a year to run, needed to be viewed in the light of the “intense devotion” of Otago-South-land people. Dr M. Pollock, associate professor of medicine at the University of Otago Medical School, said yesterday that the body scanner appeal had united Dunedin people and others in Southland in a way which was “outstanding.” Medical students, particularly, had given the “town and gown" link a boost which had been unequalled in recent years. Support from many local bodies and small committees had shown the importance which people attached to the combined effort, Dr Pollock said. “It is no longer a question of if we can get a scanner but just how soon. We have not even launched the appeal officially yet, and we' are half way there,’’ Dr Pollock said that the installation of the Dunedin body scanner would give medicine in general a boost in the area, and would help Dunedin to retain and attract first rate clinicians and surgeons as well as boosting research work.

“Dunedin might be going through a rough patch in some respects, but the unprecedented success of this appeal so far shows there is no shortage of ‘heart’ among the people?’