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Hospital to prepare home for new MRI machine

Hospital to prepare home for new MRI machine Geotechnical work was performed at Whitehorse General Hospital last week to prepare for a planned hospital expansion.

Geotechnical work was performed at Whitehorse General Hospital last week to prepare for a planned hospital expansion.

The expansion is intended to create space for a new emergency department as well as a dedicated suite for the territory’s incoming magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Fundraising for the MRI scanner was completed in late 2012, when the Yukon Hospital Foundation reached its $2-million goal a year ahead of schedule. Now the machine, which will be the first of its kind north of 60, just needs a home.

The arrival of the MRI scanner “is great news,” said Dr. Ken Quong, president of the Yukon Medical Association. The MRI has increasingly become the preferred imaging method for a wide variety of medical conditions, eclipsing the CT scan, and Quong sees the machine only becoming more essential as time goes on.

Currently, the territory pays to send 500 Yukoners south for MRI scans each year.