Both the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital and the Modern Medical and Diagnostic Centre will enjoy the use of state-of-the-art CT Scan machines.
Budget 2022 presented last week, also provides for a new C-arm advanced medical imaging device.
Finance Minister Camilo Gonsalves says after discussions throughout 2021, the Government has also happily accepted an offer from the Maria Holder Memorial Trust to provide a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to our hospital.
“The presence of an MRI in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will significantly reduce the cost to patients who, up until now, have had to travel overseas to access the diagnostic capacity of such a machine”.
The Government is also cooperating with the Maria Holder Memorial Trust in the improvement of care to our ageing population, Gonsalves said.
“In 2019, we relocated the residents of the Lewis Punnett Home to a refurbished temporary facility that was better equipped to treat elderly and infirm patients in comfort.
“This budget advances the quest to build a modern, permanent elderly care facility in Glen by allocating $910,000 for the demolition of the old facility and to complete designs for its replacement, as well as the development of the necessary legislative and regulatory framework for geriatric services”.
This is a significant commitment to the comfort and care of our elders, Gonsalves stated.
An MRI machine uses a powerful magnet to make images of your body. Unlike a CT scan, it does not use x-rays or other radiation. You will be given earplugs. The scanner makes a loud noise when it’s operating. A device called a coil may be put on or around the area to be scanned to help capture the images
The Maria Holder Memorial Trust is not an implementing organisation. They seek to manage the interventions through partners on the ground who are best placed to implement the projects they have chosen to support.
