The Eastern Bay Energy Trust has today donated a new CT scanner worth $977,055 with cutting edge technology to Whakatane Hospital.

The Toshiba Aquilion Prime scanner is the thirdscanner donation EBET has made during 17 years of supporting the hospital, showing its continued commitment.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board radiologist Matthew Preston, EBET trustees David Bulley, Wade Brown and Kevin Hennessy, and BOPDHB radiographers Earl Charters and Johan Mann, with the Toshiba CT Scanner at Whakatane Hospital.

The new scanner uses cutting edge technologies, making it possible to obtain high quality clinical images in ultra-short scan times with significantly lower X-ray exposure for patients.

This accelerates the process of providing the information needed to make the best treatment decisions.

Whakatane Hospital radiologist Matthew Preston says the scanner is a perfect fit regionally, as it complemented Tauranga Hospital's Aquilion One scanner.

'Computed Tomography scans have become a critical part of medical care,” says Matthew.

'Illnesses as diverse as appendicitis, stroke and tumours are diagnosed.

'In trauma they are used to assess the spine and internal organs. In those with cancer, after diagnosis they are used to plan treatment and to follow progress after radiotherapy and chemotherapy.”

Matthew says patients previously had to leave Whakatane for their scans, now almost all Eastern Bay residents are now scanned at Whakatane Hospital, with only a few very specialised scans going to Tauranga.

'The turnaround is that we now scan a lot of patients from Te Puke, Tauranga and as far as Katikati,” says Matthew.

'Thanks to the EBET and our dedicated staff, Whakatane Hospital has been able to proudly provide a CT scan service using the most up-to-date equipment over the last 17 years.”

The new scanner will be leased to the hospital under a seven-year operating lease.

Repayments include interest, which means the trust receives an appropriate rate of return on investment, says EBET chairman Don Lewell.

'The combination of a grant and an investment is an ideal example of how the trust can work with a local organisation to provide essential services to our community, while at the same time receiving extra income to boost the Trust's investment fund.”

Don says this project will have long-term benefits for the trust's beneficiaries 'both in earlier and more accurate diagnosis which will result in lives saved, but also in income for the trust”.

EBET has a strong focus on health, says Don. As well as funding three CT scanners for Whakatane Hospital, it has provided $85,980 funding for the installation of a digital X-ray machine at Opotiki Health Centre in 2005, and more than $200,000 in 2007 for the Project Hope cancer centre.

Twenty-five years ago, Eastern Bay residents who needed a CT scan had to travel to Waikato or Auckland for services; and up to 17 years ago a trip to Tauranga was still required.

Toshiba CT scanner facts:

- Superb image quality.

- Fast – scans the body in one breath hold.

- Child friendly. IStation allows children to watch a screen with a ‘video' to keep them focussed during the scan.

- Low radiation dose. The latest technology ensures the best possible scan with the lowest possible radiation. Dose reductions of 40-70 per cent relative to earlier models.

- Same ‘family' of scanners as Tauranga Hospital – all people in the Bay of Plenty get the same quality, from East Cape to Waihi Beach.

- Scans performed in Whakatane or Tauranga can be viewed by doctors at Waikato, Tauranga and Whakatane Hospitals immediately.

- Up to 25 scans a day can be performed – compared with seven or eight previously.

- The table patients lie on can now take people weighing up to 300kg.