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Adam Huras
Telegraph-Journal

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MONCTON - In one of the first steps in his war on wait times, Health Minister Mike Murphy announced Monday that the province will provide $846,000 for new equipment at the Moncton Hospital.

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Adam Huras/Telegraph-JournalRachelle Gaudet, left, technical director of the medical imaging department, and Health Minister Mike Murphy stand beside the Moncton Hospital ’s new digital mammography unit Monday. Murphy announced $846,000 in funding for the hospital over the next fiscal year to upgrade its medical equipment.

Wait times for a first mammogram screening appointment at Moncton Hospital currently stand at 54 weeks, a whopping 294 days longer than the national standard.

"It's alarming, it is," said Rachelle Gaudet, technical director of the medical imaging department at the hospital of the waiting line that current has to be endured.

When a female turns 50, she receives a letter to go for a first mammogram screening. But if she signs up at the Moncton Hospital, she will be waiting past her next birthday.

While that isn't the case for those with an indication of breast cancer - those patients can go directly to their family doctor and receive diagnostic services immediately - it slows access to one of the few preventative measures avaialble.

With no cure for breast cancer, early detection is the best way to stop it.

Murphy stood in front of a room full of doctors, the hospital administration, private funds donors and media with his personal story of wait times that are too long.

"My mother was a breast cancer survivor on two occasions," he said. "I remember the psychological agony which still exists for most of the wait times."

With that he said Moncton Hospital will receive $846,000 this fiscal year toward the purchase of a new digital mammography unit and a digital radiology unit.

The digital radiology unit will be used in the medical imaging department, replacing an older unit to provide improved image quality without the use of film.

Having digital captures will allow for a database of tests to eliminate some retestings.

That news has Gaudet believing there will soon be no list of names waiting for tests.

"We're looking to drastically reduce that time," said Gaudet. "Hopefully now a woman will be able to get her appointment within weeks."

She also added that patients may not have to wait at all within a year.

Murphy said he has just a few priorities to deliver on over the next two years, and wait times leads them.

"If you have too many priorities, you have no priorities at all," said Murphy. "So my number-one priority is wait times. And breast cancer screening is one of my priorities of the few that I treasure."

He said over the next few days he will be making several similar announcements around the province.

The South-East Regional Health Authority will receive $1,028,950 this year to buy new equipment. The funding is part of the Department of Health's $13.22 million budget in fiscal 2008-09 for new medical equipment and technology.

The Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation raised an additional $1.1 million through its Mammography Matters campaign for the new technology.