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Quebec Liberal Health Minister Health Minister Yves Bolduc and Laurier-Dorion Liberal MNA Gerry Sklavounos dropped by Jean Talon Hospital last week for the unveiling of a new $1.2 million CT scan machine paid for by the provincial government.
On the cutting edge
“Today’s medical experts must be able to count on equipment that is cutting-edge, especially in the field of medical imaging,” said Bolduc who is himself a medical doctor. The latest generation CT scanner replaces an older model the hospital had been using which had reached the end of its usefulness. CT scanners take highly precise x-ray images of the body or parts of it by dividing the images into slices.
The new machine at the hospital will allow doctors to conduct medical examinations more thoroughly and will also make CT scans more widely available. Jean Talon Hospital expects to get a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine worth $2.8 million around this time next year. It should also greatly improve the doctors’ ability to diagnose medical problems by accurately visualizing the internal structure and function of the body.
Boosting efficiency
“Our old equipment forced us to send a certain number of cases elsewhere,” said Jean-Paul Cadieux, president of CSSS du Coeur-de-l’Île, the local health and social services agency which oversees the hospital. “From now on we’ll be able to deal with them here.” With the old CT scanner, the hospital was able to deal with about 300 patients per year. The new one will raise that number of 2,000.
As Jean Talon Hospital is one of two designated trauma treatment centres in the Montreal region, the addition of the new CT scanner is important, said Sklavounos. The hospital has also gained a reputation as a regional centre for arthroplasty, involving the replacement of defective hips and knees. “Jean Talon Hospital, which is part of the CSSS du Coeur-de-l’Île, plays an essential role in this part of the metropolis,” he said.
Attract new doctors
“With this new equipment, the medical team will be able to contribute even more to the quality and accessibility to specialized medical services offered to the population of Villeray and Petite-Patrie, as well as to other sectors of Montreal and the neighbouring regions. This is going to allow the hospital to continue its good work and to attract good professionals because they’re going to be equipped with the latest technology.”
Answering journalists’ questions on other issues afterwards, Bolduc was asked about an e-mail sent from his office to hospitals across the province, instructing them to refer all media inquiries about the cancer testing controversy that has broken out in Quebec back to the health minister’s office. Bolduc denied he was showing a lack of transparency. “We want the information to be the same for everyone,” he said.
Cancer controversy
“We don’t want hospitals giving out information differently. And we think that for the population to have good information we have to have standardization. We this is something we have to do so that people will be getting good information … We want everyone to have the information at the same time. It is important for the population to get the right information at the right moment.”