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Community members crowded the new CT suite at Campbellford Memorial Hospital (CMH) for the machine's unveiling on Monday.

"This is a significant milestone for our hospital," said Trish Baird, chair of the CMH board. "This represents five years of planning and solid decision-making that has supported this hospital's ability to provide a high quality of care to our patients.

The hospital received official approval for a CT scan from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in 2008. Since then the CMH Foundation has raised more than $2 million to fund the project. It has now reached 92 per cent of its $2.5 million goal, with less than $200,000 needed to finish the campaign. One of the biggest donors to that campaign was the Township of Havelock Belmont Methuen, which committed $400,000.

"I know of many accounts, some personal, of this hospital saving lives," said Township Reeve Ron Gerow. "CMH is now the little hospital that can. This is a great day for the greater community that this hospital serves."

Trent Hills Mayor Hector Macmillan was especially proud, he said, since he was also born at the hospital. "This hospital has great personal significance to me and I'm glad to see that we're preserving our past and are certainly going to enhance our future," Mayor Macmillan said. "I can't tell you how pleased I am and how proud I am of this community."

Norm Bartlett, chief of the emergency department at CMH, was the first to suggest the idea of bringing a CT scan to the hospital.

"Over the last 12 years I've worked here, every day I say to myself, 'I wish we had a CT,'" Dr. Bartlett explained. "This is an historic day for Campbellford and for our region."

Dr. Bartlett emphasized the generosity of all the communities served by the hospital in supporting the foundation's fundraising campaign. "This is not a community that is geographic, and we're not a political entity. This is a community of people that realize the importance of rural health care."

For patients, the addition of a CT scan means they will no longer need to be transferred to neighbouring hospitals in Peterborough or Trenton to receive the test, which will also increase patient safety.

"You want a diagnosis as quickly as possible because the longer you're arranging for the transfer of a patient, the more damage can be done," Dr. Bartlett said. "The last place you want a patient to be is in the back of an ambulance being transferred somewhere. You want to be able to monitor them."

CT scans are also employed in the diagnosis of stroke, traumas such as neck or back injuries, abdominal pain, appendicitis and fractures. The machine begins serving patients on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Source: CMH

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