Central Otago's first CT scanner should be operating at Dunstan Hospital by March and the proponents are confident they will find all the funding needed for the million-dollar project.
After several months of debate about the best location for a scanner to serve the wider Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes district, the Southern District Health Board decided in June to install two scanners, one at Dunstan and one at Lakes District Hospital, Frankton.
It decided the Dunstan scanner should be installed as soon as possible to serve the wider area, while the second one would be in place within two years.
Central Otago Health Services Ltd, which runs Dunstan, had lobbied for a scanner for some time and the company's board and management were working through the details of buying, installing and operating the scanner, chairman Russell McGeorge said yesterday.
"There's ... a lot to sort out, but we're confident of meeting the March target date and of sourcing the funding. We're talking a million-dollar package," he said.
He did not want to provide further details of the estimated cost, as tenders would be called at the end of September or early October for the main equipment.
This would be done as part of a package of two machines.
The second machine, separate to the Central Otago project, will be based in Christchurch, but savings were expected through sourcing two machines at once, Mr McGeorge said.
The health company had talked to the district health board about operational funds and also discussed the purchase of the scanner with the Central Lakes Trust, which was likely to be the "main funder.""We haven't made a formal application to them yet, but we have had preliminary talks which were positive."
Other organisations which might provide funding for associated additional costs would be approached soon, he said.
"We've even had a couple of cheques from members of the public come whistling through the mail - donations for the scanner. That's the sort of fantastic community Central Otago is."
Mr McGeorge said no fundraising appeal was planned.
"Firstly, our community already helps us out in all sorts of ways with the hospital, and secondly, we wouldn't want to clash with the neurosurgery appeal.
"We're looking forward to the day when people from here no longer have to travel to Dunedin for a CT scan," he said.
Mr McGeorge said it was "nice that it'll be open in the hospital's 150th anniversary year".
