The week-long installation of the $1 million scanner will begin next week and the machine was likely to be operational at the end of May or early June, Central Otago Health Services Ltd general manager Karyn Penno said yesterday.
The health company runs the hospital.
''The most exciting thing is that people who live in the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes area, who need CT scans, are already starting to be identified to be served by the Dunstan scanner, once it's operational, '' she said.
''Those people, mostly outpatients, will be able to be lifted out of the waiting lists for the Dunedin or Invercargill scanners and may only need to take an hour off work to go and get a scan, instead of taking a whole day off and having to travel.''
The process of reviewing and prioritising those needing the service was co-ordinated by the Southern District Health Board and factors such as where the patients lived and how urgently they needed care were taken into account, she said.
''We anticipate that a total of about 1000 people a year will be removed from the waiting lists for the Dunedin and Invercargill scanners - that's the number of people from here who travel outside our area to use that service every year. By having a scanner at Dunstan, it should ease the load on those services and make a difference to the people on those waiting lists, as well as making it easier for people here to access the service.''
''It's likely there will be some spare capacity and we're starting to talk to the board about whether that can be used to assist people from outside the area, by offering them scans,'' Ms Penno said.
Once the machine is operational, open days would be held ''so the public can get a look at what they've donated money towards''. The equipment was from Germany and manufacturer Siemens was sending a team of New Zealand-based staff to carry out the installation.
