A radio-pediatrician from the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS is sounding the alarm about the fact that the future Mother-Child Center, which is under construction, will not have any magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. pediatric.
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Nonsense, according to Dr. Yves Patenaude, who is worried since the two MRI machines available to the Fleurimont Hospital are located more than 300 meters from the future neonatology unit.
“The MRI machines are located at the research center,” he explains. This means that our little patients, who are often premature and often unstable, will have to leave the neonatology unit, go down 3 or 4 floors in an elevator, take a corridor to another elevator and there, we will do approximately 1000 steps in a corridor to the MRIs.
Too long a journey according to Dr. Patenaude, especially for this fragile clientele.
“Little unstable, premature patients, for whom we pass a resonance, the more we move them, the more they risk coding and the more they risk arriving at unfortunate events”, he worries.
If Dr. Yves Patenaude has decided to go out publicly to express his concerns, it is out of a duty of care.
Despite the fact that he and some of his colleagues have repeatedly asked management to include this equipment in the project, they still refuse.
“In the mother-child center right now, what people say is that they can’t change or correct a comma, they can’t change anything. We have a year and a half left to find a solution and if nothing changes, we can say that we have done everything to prevent the blow.
Only advantages to having a pediatric MRI
Currently, specialized pediatric centers in Quebec all have a pediatric MRI.
More precise for the little ones, it therefore allows better diagnosis and better treatment. If the CIUSSS acquired this device, it would reduce the list of patients waiting for an MRI examination.
The CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS refused our interview request. In writing, he justifies his refusal to add this equipment by the fact that this device would not be occupied full time.
As for security issues, he sees none.
We have contacted the office of the Minister of Health to see if he intends to oblige the CIUSSS to integrate this device into the future Mother-Child Center, but have not yet heard back.
Remember that the Mother-Child Center, whose construction is estimated at more than 350 million dollars, should welcome its first patients in 2024.
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