Province gives green light to Estevan MRI

The provincial government is changing its stance on helping the City of Estevan get an MRI machine for St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Health Minister Everett Hindley told reporters the province is giving the green light for the project to proceed. But there will be no operational funding provided for it, as Hindley said it won’t be up and running this year.

It was revealed last fall that the provincial government declined a $2-million donation from private donor Elaine Walkom, which would have gone towards the MRI.

“(Establishing an MRI in Estevan) does require a bit of a change in terms of developing a framework and some criteria for cities like Estevan,” Hindley said.

“This is a new territory for us, I would say, in terms of where we establish an MRI capacity in this province.”

Hindley said the province had talks with St Joseph’s, Emmanuel Health (the organization that runs the hospital) and local leaders about proceeding with the next steps to establish an MRI.

Some of those steps include reaching the $6.5-million funding target, as well as necessary renovations for the facility.

Hindley said the government changed its mind after looking at the existing capacity for diagnostics in the area and seeing how many people were on waiting lists in southeast Saskatchewan.

“We do need to continue to reduce the waitlist,” the health minister said. “We have a growing population. We have greater demand on the health-care system, and that includes growing demand for MRIs.”

Hindley said Walkom’s donation helped start the conversation that led to where things are today.

He said the government will use the situation in Estevan as an opportunity to develop new criteria on how to accept donations and ensure they make sense in the long term.

“As an example, you have to make sure that you have the staffing to operate these machines and have this type of services available in facilities,” Hindley said.

“These machines don’t last forever, either. Sometimes they need to be replaced in 10 or 12 years, and so we want to ensure that we’re thinking for the long term (about) who pays for it for that.”

Hindley said it was too early to discuss a timeline for the project.

Jared Clarke, the Saskatchewan NDP’s rural and remote health critic, accused the Sask. Party of dragging its feet on the project, especially given the vocal community support for it.

“This should have been a no-brainer,” Clarke told reporters on Monday.

“This should have been a common-sense solution. Here is an opportunity to get an MRI in an area of this province that is underserviced for folks who live in the Estevan area who have to drive to Regina to get care or have to drive to Saskatoon to get care.”