Body scanner for Dunedin in December

Press, 23 September 1980, Page 6

Body scanner for Dunedin in December

Health Reporter Dunedin should have the South Island’s first body scanner in use before March next year. The Otago Hospital Board said yesterday that the United States manufacturer of the body scanner had told the board that it could have the $860,000 ■ scanner in Dunedin by December. Allowing for alterations to the outpatients block at Dunedin Hospital, the scanner could be installed before the end of the year. This will be at least two months ahead of the scanner ordered for Christchurch. The Dunedin scanner, the result of a $1 million public appeal in Otago and Southland, is a Technicare Delta 20/20 model, the same as New Zealand’s first body scanner which has been in use in Auckland since 1978. It will cost $860,000. The manufacturer has included a free maintenance contract worth $68,000 for each of the first two years of use. The body scanner, a General Electric model, ordered

for the Christchurch Hospital, will cost'sl.o4 million and has a one-year period of free maintenance. Contrary to some comments by some members of the North Canterbury Hospital Board last month that the Minister of Health (Mr Gair) would, refuse permission for a body scanner for Dunedin, Mr Gair has now agreed to the project In a letter to the chairman of the Otago Hospital Board (Mrs Dprothy Fraser) and the chairman of the OtagoSouthland Body Scanner Appeal (Mr Richard Walls), Mr Gair has given his assent. Mr Gair has asked the Health Department to give every assistance. The appeal has now reached $765,432. A further $300,000 is assured from the profits of a raffle. A radio appeal in Otago and Southland is expected to boost the total to well over $1.3 million when the appeal ends on October 19. The extra money over the purchase price will be used for running expenses.