Barcaldine Multipurpose Health Service Director of Nursing Karen Deininger – left – and Nurse Graduate Ella Stewart check out the new Shimadzu digital X-ray equipment.
A $285,000 project to replace the old X-ray equipment at Barcaldine Multipurpose Health Service with new, state of the art machines has been completed.
Central West Hospital and Health Service Acting Executive Director for Finance, Infrastructure and Support Services Joe Byrne said the new Shimadzu RADspeed Pro fixed and MX8 mobile machines were a major step up from the older X-ray equipment.
“The new machines use digital technology as opposed to computed radiography,’’ Mr Byrne said.
“Digital radiography is able to provide a much higher quality image much more quickly.
“Most importantly, digital radiography requires a much lower dose of radiation and therefore much less exposure time to produce a comparable quality image to computed radiography machines.
“The new mobile machine is also much more compact, more portable and more user friendly than the old one.’’
Mr Byrne said between 1000 and 1100 X-rays a year were delivered by the Barcaldine MPHS Medical Imaging Department.
“We thank Barcaldine MPHS visitors and patients for their understanding and apologise for any inconvenience while we were installing the new X-ray equipment over the past month,’’ he said.
“But thanks to the installation of the new equipment, all medical imaging services at Barcaldine MPHS are now back to normal.’’