Premier Heather Stefanson was in Swan River yesterday to announce that a CT Scanner will be coming to the Swan Valley Health Centre.
The community raised over one million dollars towards bringing in the scanner, and the Provincial Government will be putting up the remaining two million. Stefanson spoke about the goal of bringing healthcare closer to home during an impromptu stop at the Parkland Chamber of Commerce Street Fair earlier today.
"We've always wanted to ensure that we have healthcare closer to home for everybody." Said Stefanson, "The community of Swan River came together and put some of their own funds together for it, and so we're just topping it up with our two million."
The Swan Valley Health Centre serves a population of 14,000 in the Swan Valley region. Currently, patients in the region are transported via ambulance or travel on their own to Dauphin, Brandon, or Winnipeg to obtain CT scans.
"It will help the entire Parkland Region I think as well." Said Stefanson, "What we don't want is people having to travel all the way to Winnipeg or Brandon, or elsewhere, we want to have the CT Scanner there for those to be able to get their diagnostics closer to home. We've had a challenge obviously, as people in other Provinces have across the Country with surgical and diagnostic backlogs so this will help alleviate the pressures on the waitlist."
The announcement comes a day after Health Minister Audrey Gordon was in Dauphin to announce a Retinal Specialist Pilot Project.
