Province gets Niagara Health set up with new MRI machine

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Published November 10, 2021 at 5:32 pm

Lynn Guerriero takes Doug Ford and Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff on a hospital tour in Niagara

Niagara Health will soon have a new MRI machine with a financial boost from the Ontario government.

Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff said in a bid to “end hallway healthcare and address wait times for diagnostic imaging” the region would be getting the expensive equipment, which runs in the neighbourhood of $2.77 million.

“As a local MPP, access to quality healthcare has been one of my top priorities,” said Oosterhoff.

“The investment in operationalizing a new MRI machine for Niagara is a key part of our government’s plan to end hallway healthcare, cut hospital wait times and build a better, more connected health care system that puts patients and their families first.”

Lynn Guerriero, President and CEO of Niagara Health, expressed her gratitude, saying, “We are grateful to the government for their commitment in ensuring Niagara residents and patients have access to diagnostic imaging.”

“In addition, we are also thankful to our donors who contributed to the purchase and installation of the new MRI machine. Collectively, these investments mean that we will be able to begin to address the backlog of patients waiting for an MRI at Niagara Health.”

Last April, St. Catharines resident Barbara Cornelius gave Niagara Health a $1 million donation in the name of her late husband, Kerry, who passed way in 2017.

In gratitude, Niagara Health renamed 4th floor Outpatient Clinics at the St. Catharines site to the “Kerry Cornelius Outpatient Clinics.”

Over the past decade, the demand for MRI services in Niagara has increased, on average, by approximately four per cent annually and wait times have worsened with 54 per cent of cases completed within target wait times in 2013/14 to just 39 per cent of cases completed within target in 2019/2020.

 

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