Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) will soon install a much-needed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine with help from the Ontario government.
The new MRI will be the Barrie hospital's third to help address the backlog of patients requiring imaging services.
RVH provides the majority of diagnostic scans across the region, with more than 7,300 people currently waitlisted, "470 of them are cancer-related patients," a release from RVH noted on Tuesday.
The province announced $800,000 in operational funding for the new MRI machine, which will be purchased with funding raised by the RVH Foundation.
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RVH medical imaging director, Dr. Raj Grover, said the announcement is "just what the doctor ordered," with the region expected to experience rapid growth in the next decade.
Dr. Grover noted an additional MRI would allow the hospital to expand services, reduce wait times, and provide "optimal timely patient care for the most complex and urgent cases."
The hospital's release states it hopes the new MRI will be onsite and operational within the next two years.
