St. Joseph's Hospital's executive director is putting together a case for Estevan to offer MRI services.

This comes after news broke Monday that the ministry of health declined a donation offer of $2 million to bring an MRI machine to Estevan.

Candace Kopec said this includes looking at a number of questions, such as where the MRI machine would go, what kind of infrastructure changes would be needed, what kind of staffing model it would require, and what wait lists look like for MRIs in the province.

"Looking at space, we have tentatively looked at an option. And it would require some infrastructure changes, such as adding on to our current diagnostics imaging department."

Kopec said people travel hours to come to the hospital for CT scans, which could bode well for use of MRI services.

"We have people coming from all over. We're looking at Regina, we're looking at Yorkton. Whether that's because of access - they can come sooner. It's just a great opportunity for people, even in greater distance than the whole southeast corner."

Kopec said she's very appreciative of Elaine Walkom's offer to donate the $2 million to bring the service to Estevan, and thankful for having a community that consistently steps up to help with associated costs.

"I also recognize everything that's needed to put into place to look at that," said said. "I took it (the province rejecting the $2 million donation) as an opportunity to see what we need to do to ensure that the government has the information that they need to better understand our community and how we can support such a venture."

"St. Joseph's Hospital would be pleased to operate an MRI if that was the decision made by the province."

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, DiscoverEstevan encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the DiscoverEstevan app.

Related Stories