Lions Gate Hospital unveils new MRI

A number of local government officials and media outlets, including Global, CTV, Sing Tao and the North Shore News, visited Lions Gate Hospital on Wednesday to get a closer look at the new state-of-the art MR scanner in the digital imaging department.

Thanks to a $1 million donation from Hollyburn Properties Ltd. last fall, which was first reported in VCH News last October, LGH is the first hospital in Canada to employ the latest generation in MRI technology. The upgraded GE Signa Explorer imager is 98 per cent quieter, produces sharper images and can scan in a fraction of the time of the old machine.

Click here to watch the CTV story.

Currently, Lions Gate performs more than 7,000 MRIs annually. With the new MRI, that could increase by 30 per cent.

Hollyburn Properties Ltd., a local property management and development company, is owned by Stephen Sander and his family.

Back at full capacity

With the upgrade completed, the LGH MRI has successfully ramped back to full capacity scanning from 7 am to midnight Monday to Friday as well as scanning from 7 am to 7 pm on the weekends.

LGH is reviewing its current operations and staffing required in efforts to meet the Ministry of Health’s request and VCH’s goal of transitioning to scanning 24/7.

Members of the Sander family, along with Judy Savage, LGH Foundation President and Dr. Kevin Rowan, LGH Director of Diagnostic Imaging, show off the new MRI.

Members of the Sander family, including Stephen Sander (founder of Hollyburn Properties Ltd. – 2nd from right ) pose under the newly named MRI department.