Millions worth of high-tech gear at hospital is wearing out

When you visit Sault Area Hospital for a test or procedure involving state of the art equipment, you think the Ministry of Health has bought those devices, right?

Wrong.

Contrary to what most of us may think, annual Ministry funding for hospitals goes to pay hospital staff (doctors, nurses and other medical personnel, as well as administrators and all other staff) and hospital building maintenance, including hydro costs. 

Money to purchase hi-tech diagnostic imaging devices such as CT scanners, MRI scanners, ultrasound and X-ray equipment and other medical gear comes from donations and fundraising efforts organized by the Sault Area Hospital Foundation (SAHF).

$1.5 million is needed this year alone to purchase medical equipment for patient care, each SAH program and department with its own specific equipment needs.

A staggering $50 million is needed over the next six years. 

“This is essential equipment (not luxuries),” said Logan Costa, SAHF development and communications officer, speaking to SooToday Thursday.

“We’ve been in this new hospital site for seven years. Half the equipment at this hospital was purchased brand new, when the new hospital opened, which was great. It allowed for great advancements in patient care…but now, a big bulk of that equipment is seven years old, and we have to prepare to replace the equipment that is now seven years old, which is going to reach its end over the next six years,” Costa explained.

A vehicle is a good analogy, Costa said.

“If you have a seven year old car, even though you can have your car for longer, you know how much more money it’s going to cost you to repair it, you don’t want to take it on a long trip in case it has a breakdown.”

Costa said one of those ‘seven year old vehicles’ high on the hospital’s ‘must replace’ list is a new MRI scanner.

“We know a new MRI will be needed in the next six years. Current stats show we perform 17,000 MRIs a year.”

Without new equipment such as MRIs, Costa said, Sault and area patients face the possibility of travelling to Sudbury or other communities for tests.

Of the $50 million needed by SAH over the next six years, Costa said $14 million is needed for diagnostic imaging equipment such as MRIs.

The balance of that $50 million includes the need for patient bedside monitors, patient lifts, maternity ward equipment and a host of other items.

“Every piece of medical equipment on our list, right across the hospital, the only way we would get it is through community funding (donations to SAHF),” Costa reiterated.  

SAH doctors hope to begin performing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI), more commonly referred to as angioplasty or stenting, later this year.

The total cost to implement that program, Costa said, is $7.5 million, with SAHF looking to provide $4.5 million of that figure through donations and fundraising.

That money is needed for angioplasty equipment and lab renovations, Costa said.

“This isn’t something we can wait around on. This is something we need to push forward and fund.”

Costa said many individuals ask ‘how does my donation make a difference? I can’t give $1,000.’

“Obviously we want people to donate, and to put it into perspective, if every household in Sault Ste. Marie gave $25 a month, we would raise $10 million a year.”

“Obviously that’s not super realistic, so what I want people to take from that is ‘every little bit helps,’ that’s what we want people to think about. We want people to prioritize their healthcare. We want them to take ownership of it because it is theirs. It’s something that, without their help, we can’t continue,” Costa said.

Posters have now been placed by SAHF on walls throughout the hospital outlining the need for donations.

Any individual, group or employer wishing to step up and make a donation may contact the Sault Area Hospital Foundation by phone at (705) 759-3848, by email at [email protected] or online 

“Without most of these pieces of equipment, our hospital wouldn’t run the same without them,” Costa said, pointing to the recently purchased and installed CT scanner which SAHF purchased for nearly $1.1 million.

SAH, currently equipped with two CT scanners, the newer of which formally unveiled Apr. 12 to replace a 10-year-old scanner from the old SAH hospital site, performs over 20,000 CT scans annually to diagnose cancer, organ failure and other ailments.

The older scanner is now seven years old, installed when the new SAH site opened on Great Northern Road in 2011.

The two CT scanners are capable of performing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.