CT-scanner to operate in Dauphin next week

BRANDON — A CT-scanner is expected to be operational in Dauphin next week after the city’s hospital closed in early July.

The unit, which is being set up on the grounds of the Dauphin Regional Health Centre, will be in use as of Sept. 23, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Wednesday.

“We were originally told it was going to take many months to have CT up and running … We said that timeline was unacceptable,” Asagwara said.

Dauphin’s emergency department reopened on Sept. 7. The facility was forced to close on July 1 due to significant flooding in its basement that damaged mechanical and electrical systems throughout the building.

Prairie Mountain Health said at the time that repairs would take nine months to a year.

After a visit to Dauphin in mid-August, Premier Wab Kinew deemed the timeline “unacceptable” and delivered on his vow to open the temporary ER on Labour Day.

Asagwara said they’re thankful for the “team effort” that went into opening the emergency department.

“There’s nowhere else in Canada where there’s been such a rapid approach to restoring a critical service of that size in a community,” Asagwara said.

Janet Twerdoclib, vice-president of acute care and chief nursing officer for PMH, provided a statement Tuesday about the restoration to other parts of the hospital.

“Prairie Mountain Health and Shared Health have always indicated that the hospital’s return to full services would be completed in phases,” the statement said.

“Work is well underway on phase 2. This next phase will primarily prioritize resuming on-site CT scan procedures within the next month, as well as providing cancer care and dialysis services closer to home. Further phase 2 announcements are expected in the coming weeks,” the statement said.

Health-care professionals have praised the rapid return of some services to the Dauphin hospital.

A spokesperson for Doctors Manitoba said physicians have appreciated the consultation done by PMH and Shared Health.

“Physicians are quite pleased overall with the progress to restore services in Dauphin,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We deeply appreciate the true team effort to return emergency care to the patients of Dauphin.”

Health-care staff from the nearby Ste. Rose du Lac Hospital have said the reopening of the Dauphin hospital has left their team short-staffed.

Asagwara said the health ministry is in contact with those physicians to address their concerns.

Asagwara also said they had spoken with PMH chief executive officer Treena Slate to discuss staff recruitment and retention in the region and made sure “the doctors that we are recruiting … are being prioritized for Ste. Rose du Lac and for Grandview in the Prairie Mountain Health region.”

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook, in an interview with the Brandon Sun, praised the health-care workers from across the region for “really stepping up.”

Cook, the MLA for Roblin, was in Dauphin late last week, along with other members of the PC caucus.

“Most of the people I spoke with in Dauphin are mostly concerned about being able to access diagnostic imaging, dialysis (and) surgeries at their regional hospital again,” Cook said.

— Brandon Sun