Brockville General Hospital reaches 'major milestone' in MRI suite construction

The Brockville General Hospital reached a major milestone last weekend in the construction of its new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) suite.

The suite was installed by crane as an extension to the hospital and now just needs the finishing touches.

"This is a tremendously exciting project. We are truly innovating," said Al Page, the project manager for the construction.

"We were very keen to find the quickest way to having a final solution where we can start scanning patients right here in Brockville. And exploring, we found the solution for a prefabricated building."

The hospital says this is the first time an MRI suite has been built this way in Ontario. The off-site construction allowed the process to move more quickly, and the hospital expects to start scanning patients by the end of the spring.

"Very exciting for the hospital," explained Julie Caffin, the Senior Vice President of the Brockville General Hospital. "A lot of planning, a lot of work has gone into this. So to see it come to fruition is very exciting for us."

Previously, patients would have to travel to Kingston, Perth or Ottawa to receive their MRIs, each more than 50 kilometres away.

Once construction here is complete, that won't be the case.

"The benefit of having care closer to home is they can get their test done right here," Caffin continued. "They don't have to travel down the highway and it frees up the waitlist for those other people who are also waiting at those other places."