C T Scanner for Dunstan Hospital

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After several months of debate about the best location for a scanner to serve the wider Central Otago area, the Southern District Health Board decided in June 2012 to opt for a staged development.    One scanner should be installed at Dunstan as soon as possible and the second one at Lakes District Hospital within two years once details of ownership and funding were sorted out, it said.

Central Lakes Trust chairman Sir Eion Edgar said it was a relatively easy decision for the trust to make. ‘This has been a topic of discussion across the region for quite some time and, in our view, the public have identified this as a high priority for the region and it wil directly benefit many of the local residents.’ Trust chief executive Paul Allison said.

With a $1million grant from the Central Lakes Trust covering the entire cost of the machine, an order has been placed said Ainsley Webb, chairwoman of Central Otago Health Inc., the hospital’s governing body.       ‘It’s with a feeling of elation and relief ….. that we have got the scanner for Central Otago.

Without this grant, we couldn’t contemplate getting a CT scanner at Dunstan, it’s as simple as that,’ Central Otago health Services Limited chairman Russell McGeorge said.

Mrs Webb said modifications to include lead-lined walls of a hospital room would need to be made with an expected cost of approx. $250,000.  Charity group Friends of Dunstan Hospital had agreed to underwrite $150,000 but the rest would come from community fundraising.       

Local Rotary and Lions groups had banded together to fundraise and hopefully cover the remainder of the cost.  Simultaneous garage sales were planned throughout the region on Saturday 16th February 2013.   Various other fundraising activities are also taking place.