Lengthy wait times for CT scans across Chatham-Kent could soon be shorter.
On Thursday morning, Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Trevor Jones announced $1 million to increase operational hours and hire extra staff in Chatham-Kent Health Alliance's (CKHA) Diagnostic Imaging Department to ensure patients have timely access to the essential care and screenings they need.
Jones and CKHA President and Chief Executive Officer Adam Topp noted the next step is to add another CT scanner at CKHA in case the sole scanner currently in service malfunctions.
Topp said CKHA is committed to reducing waiting times because some patients are currently waiting several months for appointments.
"We've got one CT that does 24,000 scans a year and if it goes down, that's a lot of patients who are displaced, that's a lot of surgeries that may be cancelled, stroke victims that won't get the immediate care that they need within their 45 minute window. It's a risk management issue, we need another CT scanner here," said Topp.
Cynthia Stulp, CKHA Manager of Diagnostic Imaging, said the funding will allow CKHA to move closer to the provincial target by adding staff and four to six hours to the operation.
"We are hoping to go later into the night with outpatients. During the day we always prioritize our emergency patients, our code strokes, our in-patients, and then outpatients fill out all the other spots of the day. So, it'll help us go later at night and increase hours on weekends and stat holidays," Stulp noted.
Topp said CT wait times are the worst wait times at CKHA and patients are not happy about it.
"To get an elective CT, we know that the people in Chatham-Kent are waiting 250 days. That is way beyond the target that it should be and we really need to get that time down," Topp said.
CKHA performs an average of 24,000 CT scans per year.
