The Radiology Department at Taranaki Base Hospital are
the proud custodians of a brand new state-of-the art MRI
machine – but taking delivery of it was a major logistical
challenge.
“It wasn’t just getting the very heavy,
very big machine up to the second floor of the hospital,”
explains Te Whatu Ora Taranaki project manager Heather
MacKenzie. “We had to upgrade the technical specification
of the room the MRI was going into as well.”
The MRI
(Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Scanner weighs in at 4 tons and
is being leased until a brand new one is purchased for the
New East Wing Building, due for completion in late 2024.
This arrangement came about due to the old MRI machine being
more than 20 years old and no longer serviceable. A new
leased SPECT CT scanner (which uses radioactive tracers in
the blood to take images and fuse then with CT rather than
X-rays) is also due to arrive at the end of August, again as
an interim solution until the New East Wing Building is
completed.
MRI Lift –
Credit: Te Whatu Ora
In order to
take the weight of the new machine, the floor had to be
strengthened with steel and concrete, which needed the
installation of new ceiling beams to protect the floors
below. Some of these were craned in through a window above
the emergency department, and cardiology was temporarily
relocated while the work took place.
“The
strengthening work was very disruptive, but the clinical
teams involved were fantastic and just got on with their
daily mahi treating patients amidst the bangs and thuds,
“says Heather. “Everyone involved with this major piece
of work, which took six weeks, responded so well, it made
the job so much easier to get done.”
Then came the
challenge of actually getting the new machines into its new
home. The MRI machine was too big to come in through
conventional doorways so there was only one solution – by
air.
“Ultimately, the only way to get a piece of
equipment this big into a building is by taking down one of
the walls or taking off the roof,” says Heather. “In
this case the roof was the better option, so off it came and
the MRI Scanner was craned in, then the roof was
replaced.”
All in all, the project took six weeks of
intense, challenging work not helped by the Taranaki
weather.
“Yes, it was tough while it lasted, but
everyone recognised the clinical benefit of having this
brand new machine with all the capability they bring,”
says Dr Ryan Walklin, Te Whatu Ora Taranaki head of
radiology. “So it was a matter of putting in alternative
patient pathways and being flexible about work spaces and so
on until the job was done.
For the radiology team,
maintaining a service throughout the disruption was the
biggest challenge.
“Having such long period of
downtime at a hospital is a very unique situation, and were
lucky to be able to call on the support of Absolute
Radiology and Taranaki Radiology during this
time.
“Any inpatients requiring a scan were
transported from Taranaki Base Hospital to town so they
could get the diagnostic treatment they needed.
“In
some cases we were able use other modalities, and any really
unwell patients, particularly those who were intubated, were
transferred to tertiary services in Waikato and Auckland. St
Johns Ambulance staff and the transfer nurses were
wonderful.”
Looking forward, Ryan is anticipating an
uplift in capacity thanks to the efficiency of the machines,
plus the opportunity to offer enhanced patient care thanks
to the extra functionality they offer.
“We have gone
from having the oldest MRI scanner in the country by quite
some way to one of the newest so we are pretty excited about
getting it commissioned and having the training so we can
use it to its full
potential.”
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