Construction begins for new MRI machine in Smiths Falls

“Starting in October, we’ll be able to do over 3,000 patients a year.”

Published Jun 24, 2023 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 4 minute read

An official sod-turning ceremony took place on Friday at the future site of the new MRI machine being installed at the Smiths Falls campus of the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital. Photo by Sabrina Bedford /Postmedia

SMITHS FALLS — The new magnetic resonance imaging machine in Smiths Falls will reduce wait times for local residents and help save lives, officials say.

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The Smiths Falls site of the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital will offer the critical service by October, with officials officially breaking ground on the much-anticipated project Friday morning.

“It’s a great day for us here, to celebrate this day with our community, because it means our hospital is moving forward,” said Michael Cohen, president and CEO of the hospital. “It’s advancing to provide better care, closer to home with the very latest and greatest technology.”

The hospital announced earlier this year that it had officially placed the order for the new MRI machine and that the necessary construction to accommodate the equipment had begun.

The project, announced in 2021 by Leeds-Grenville-Thousand-Islands and Rideau Lakes MPP Steve Clark, will come with a $6.1-million price tag, an amount to be raised by the community through the local hospital foundation.

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The money raised will cover the cost of the machine itself and as well as the construction.

Cohen said having an MRI in-house would benefit the hospital and community in many ways, but especially those on wait lists for the service.

“Today in our region, there’s 15,000 people waiting for an MRI scan. Starting in October, we’ll be able to do over 3,000 patients a year,” he said.

The Smiths Falls hospital isn’t the only one in the region to acquire such a machine. The Brockville General Hospital will also install its own MRI, a project that is currently on track to open by March 2024.

Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP John Jordan said wait times in the region would inevitably be reduced because of these offerings because, until now, people had to travel to larger urban centres to have the procedure.

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“It will help to reduce the wait times in the region. There is wait lists, so as soon as it starts firing up, people will start getting service by this fall,” Jordan said. “There’s people waiting for service and now they’re going to get it.”

Clark, who first made the Smiths Falls MRI announcement in 2021, said his government’s improved funding formula allowed smaller hospitals to receive critical services once isolated to bigger cities.

“I’ve always been an advocate that taxpayers in Lanark, Leeds and Grenville pay their taxes to the provincial governments, and they deserve provincial services close to home,” Clark said.

“People in Lanark and Leeds Grenville have a fantastic piece of equipment that we can all celebrate, that we now don’t have to go to a centre like Kingston, like I did, or some of my colleagues, who have had to go to Ottawa. We can do it right here.”

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Jordan added among the many benefits of having the critical piece of infrastructure in Smiths Falls was that it would help attract more people to live and work here.

“The other thing it helps with is our recruitment and retention of staff,” Jordan said.

“Our practitioners want to know they’re working with the state of the art, the best equipment, the best tools they could possibly have to do their job.”

A new space is being created within the hospital to accommodate the new MRI machine. As of mid-March, several construction barriers have been added to various locations throughout the hospital to contain the construction.

Prior to the “patient-ready” date, the hospital said it needed to relocate some services to “temporary or permanent locations” in mid-March, with actual construction of the new space beginning in April through September.

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The plan is to see the first patient in October.

The Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital Foundation is entrusted with raising that money since the province doesn’t fund equipment purchases. But Kristine Fair, chair of the foundation, said they were up to the challenge.

“The MRI is a major project for both the hospital and the foundation, which will have an immense impact on our ability to provide care close to home,” Fair said.

“However, with that said, it does come with a huge price tag … We realize, in our current economic climate, raising $6.1 million may definitely be difficult. However, (the) foundation strongly believes we will definitely be able to achieve this goal and achieve it in our time frame.”

She said that, despite the fact the pandemic hampered fundraising efforts in recent years, they had already made major strides.
As of Friday, organizers had raised $1.5 million, close to 25 per cent of their overall goal — $1 million of which came from an anonymous donation.

“We couldn’t be more proud,” Cohen said.