Anguillian patients travelling to St. Martin for CT scans will soon be something of the past, with the provision of a highly sophisticated machine at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
Acting Chief Executive Officer with the Health Authority of Anguilla, Ralph Hodge, spoke to The Anguillian on Tuesday this week about the equipment. “People, like the Chairman of our Board, Dr. Franklin Lloyd, on the advice of the Director of Medical Services [Dr.Kennedy Simmonds], secured an arrangement with HMA Hospitals inPuerto Ricoto provide a machine for us,” he reported.
“We realised that buying a machine was something we could not afford because equipment of this nature would cost in the region of two million US dollars, and that is completely outside our finances. We entered into a very unique arrangement whereby we are actually on a fee-sharing basis with all the capital costs of this machine being attributed to the Health Authority of Anguilla.We paid for bringing it from Puerto Rico and, for the calibrating, technical people came in and did the work and we will be responsible for any servicing that is required.”
Mr. Hodge continued: “We are offering quite a service to the Anguillian public. The new rates which we have discussed with HMA will now be looked at by the Executive Council. The rates are very competitive when you compare what we have to pay inSt. Martin. For the first six months of the year we had an average of eight cases per month where persons were sent toSt. Martin. This was not only expensive for the health services here, but for the Anguillian patients as well.
“As I said, the fees are very, very competitive and we sincerely hope that the service we are offering, both Government and the people ofAnguillawould be veryappreciative. There are three or four impediments at the moment in having the machine fully operational. There is the training aspect, whereby the folk from HMA Hospitals will bring their radiology personnel to Anguilla to train our people; then our people will go toPuerto Ricoto get hands-on experience. We are looking for some standby bits and pieces…so that once anything happens we will always be ready to run the machine. Our electricity at the hospital is also a concern as the machine takes quite a lot of electricity; and the Executive Council has to approve our fee structure.”
Dr. Kennedy Simmonds explained that a CT Scan Machine was a type of equipment that produced more powerful xrays than those available from ordinary machines. “You get a much more detailed image from a CT Scan,” he stated. “It provides you with information about any of the tissues of the body, blood vessels, nerves, the lymphatic system and the organ systems on a whole. Thus this can give you much more detailed information to assist with diagnosis.
“We send patients toSt. Martinon a regular basis for CT scans and a variety of reasons. But sometimes we can find ourselves in a situation where a patient is so critical that it is not advisable to have that person travel across there either by boat or plane. Having the CT Scan Machine here inAnguillawould assist us in diagnosing the problem and being able to address it.
“It is particularly useful, for example, in cases of head [or other] injuries from motor vehicle accidents. It can give us an early indication as to the nature, scope and severity of the head injury – whether there is internal bleeding in the skull which would help determine the doctor’s course of action. I don’t think that there is any doubt in anyone’s mind as to the importance the CT Scan Machine.”
Once trained, the Systems Technician with the Health Authority of Anguilla, Clayton Deane, will have responsibility for the operation of the machine. He will work in consultation with the technical personnel at HMA Hospitals who, as part of the technology, can monitor operations fromPuerto Rico.
Nurse Cynthia Richardson-Hughes, Patient Advocate at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, will be intimately involved in the services of the CT Scan Machine and care of patients.
Sometime ago a degree of CT scan service was available inAnguilla. It was provided by the use of an old machine which eventually became dysfunctional and now forms part of the solid waste materials at the Corito landfill.
