A new vital piece of medical equipment has finally arrived in Charlotte County.
The CT scanner was brought to the Charlotte County Hospital at the end of January.
Steve Backman, who is the president of the Charlotte County Hospital Foundation, said the assembly has begun.
“We’re so excited to see it arrive, and we’re very happy that the construction phase is finally over, and we can actually see the light at the end of this tunnel,” he said.
The scanner is not completely built yet, as many of its parts and components come in different boxes, but Backman said it is well underway now.
“It has been a long journey, but we’ve had a tremendous amount of support from the community,” he said in an interview.
Backman hopes the CT scanner will be up and running by March, but the timeline depends on many factors. (Steve Backman/Submitted)
The community alongside some generous donations and a telethon through Charlotte FM was able to raise $700,000 for the much-needed machine.
Backman said he hopes the CT scanner will be up and operational by March, but its start-up depends on different factors.
About 4,500 patients per year travel to Saint John for CT scans, according to Backman.
“Some of them have to go multiple times for multiple scans,” he said. “That means you’re tying up an ambulance for seven or eight hours. You’re sending a nurse. So now paying other nurses overtime to make up those shifts. So having this here in St. Stephen is a huge benefit to our local community and to the staffing at the hospital.”
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