Grey Bruce Health Services is requesting Northern Bruce Peninsula provide $50,000 to assist with a replacement of x-ray equipment at Lion’s Head Hospital.
During a meeting on Dec. 12, council received a delegation from GBHS. It updated members of council about the x-ray replacement occurring at the hospital on Dec. 19.
GBHS Manager of Medical Imaging and Cardiology Barb Harron says, x-ray services are a common diagnostic tool and act as the first line of defence.
She says the project includes not just the replacement of the digital x-ray, but also the mobile x-ray machine.
X-rays are used to diagnose trauma, locate foreign bodies, and determine line and tube placements.
X-ray services are completed across GBHS sites, including in Owen Sound, Southampton, Meaford, Markdale, Wiarton, and Lion’s Head, with Owen Sound providing over 33,000 annually.
Up until the replacement of the x-ray machines, Harron says Lion’s Head had been using digital radiography in their permanent rooms, and portable computed radiography machines.
“This has been a long established department within our hospital, in fact you have to have an x-ray department in order to have a hospital and an emergency department,” says Harron.
Harron adds by switching to the new machine, it will allow for lower radiation doses, produce high image quality, and give immediate access to reference images to health professionals.
“Previously our imaging that came from Lion’s Head didn’t have the same quality as what the other sites had, so with standardizing all the equipment, the image quality will be the same,” says Harron.
Additionally, she says instead of replacing the new machine, it will only need software upgrades.
Owen Sound and Southampton have already received their x-ray machines, with Lion’s Head coming up next week. Markdale is scheduled with the new hospital build.
Bruce Peninsula Hospitals Foundation Executive Director April Patry says the municipality has supported health care efforts in the area by giving over half a million dollars over 23 years.
“Today we respectfully ask that you continue to walk beside us as we endeavour to advance the quality of health care for the people and visitors of Northern Bruce Peninsula, specifically we ask that you approve the second payment of $50,000, which will fulfill the $100,000 two-year pledge request that we asked of your municipality last year. This final pledge will complete the funding needs of the new x-ray machine,” says Patry.
