Sensenbrenner Hospital and Mayor Dave Plourde believe that Kapuskasing would make a perfect location for an MRI Unit. Plourde says that Northern Ontario is unique because you must drive 200 kilometres to Timmins to get scanned.
“I think it’s important that we have the services in our own community to be able to help ourselves,” he said. “What it does is it gets people off the roads in the middle of the night. Winter travelling on highway 11, we recognize it’s a problem.”
Plourde says 200 MRIs are done a year and money would be saved from travel grants.
“What the Ministry of Health has come back with us is put a business case together and we will see where that takes us,” he said. “I think a business case is well underway and we should be able to see further meetings to discuss that to see if we can get the ball rolling.”
Plourde says to some extent Kapuskasing is becoming a mini-medical hub for those from Smooth Rock Falls to Hornepayne but adds that it’s all about providing proper health care services to those who need it.
