Medical equipment scrapped

By Don Plant Monday, October 30, 2006 http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/article_3485.php
The destruction of an expensive piece of cardiac equipment has dismayed doctors in Kelowna. Interior Health staff dismantled the old catheterization lab at Kelowna General Hospital and shipped it to a scrap-metal yard on Friday. The machine, whose value is estimated at close to $1 million, has served as backup equipment for a new cath lab since its installation in February. “It’s been very valuable for us as a backup in the event our new lab needed service or repair,” said Dr. Richard Hooper, director of the cath lab. “It was like having an old Volkswagen in the garage when you drive a new Cadillac. It may not have airbags, but at least it had seatbelts and was reliable and safe.” IH spent $2 million on the new cath lab, which takes digital pictures of a patient’s arteries. Demand for angiograms has been so great from across the health region that patients must wait up to four months for the procedure. The old machine, installed 12 years ago, was used recently for other procedures such as inserting temporary pacemakers. Carol Ruttle, whose husband underwent an angiogram in Kelowna before having open-heart surgery in Vancouver, said dumping the old cath lab is a waste of money. “IH seems like they bulldoze in and take away something that’s still valuable,” she said. “Why are we wasting money? That’s what’s bothering me.” The health authority was aware cardiologists wanted to keep the old machine as backup, said Joanne Konnert, chief operating officer for the Okanagan. But, now that the new cath lab is operating well, there’s no need to keep the old one, she said. “We did keep it longer than we intended. It is old. Getting parts and maintaining it is next to impossible. That’s why we replaced it.”The hospital is also pressed for space, Konnert said. Nurses use the room the old machine occupied to prepare dressing trays for patients using the new cath lab. Cardiac services throughout B.C. have been under review for two years. Officials are expected in the next few weeks to unveil plans to improve patient access to bypass surgery, angioplasties and pacemakers.