MRI scanner delivered yesterday

The €1.2 million MRI scanner was delivered to Mullingar Regional Hospital last night and will be up and running in a couple of weeks, according to John McGrath of Friends of Regional Hospital Mullingar.

It will be installed in the coming days and is expected to be in operation almost immediately, with the added bonus that it will cater for children.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Mr McGrath said having this scanner will save the HSE “a pile” of money and result is faster scans for patients.

A “big plus” with the Mullingar scanner is that it caters for children who are anaesthetised and monitored when having MRI scans. The waiting list for routine MRI scans is up to two years in paediatric hospitals. “Having one in Mullingar means that children in the midlands can get an MRI quickly,” Mr McGrath said.

Last year, he said, the HSE paid €55,000 on taxis alone to take patients to other venues for MRI scans. If the patient was travelling from the hospital, they would probably need a nurse to go with them and if they were being transported by ambulance, they would have to wait until one was available, he said.

Having an MRI scanner “downstairs” means they can give patients a speedy MRI rather than leave them waiting in a hospital bed for days, even weeks for a slot, Mr McGrath said.

“We are happy that from the time the scanner goes in, there will be people to work it and it won’t be idle.”,

The Friends of the Hospital have been six years collecting the €1.2m. The HSE said they would provide the building and the staff if the community funded the purchase of the machine, Mr McGrath said. He pointed out that when they started fundraising, the cost was €850,000, but as a precaution, they set their target at €950,000, which they hit some time ago, but the cost rose to €1.2m. Earlier this year they were €50,000 short of their €1.2m target, but they have now bridged that gap and are ready to go.

The scanner is just one of a series of initiatives taken by the Friends to improve the lot of patients at the hospital. Mr McGrath said that in recent years they have given €30,000 towards improvements at the Diabetics Unit and another €30,000 to upgrade the CAT scanner that they had originally paid for.