WATCH: Premier Brian Gallant announced Thursday his government will allow the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation to purchase a DNA sequencing machine for the hospital. Global’s Andrew Cromwell has the reaction.
SAINT JOHN – Premier Brian Gallant announced Thursday his government will be allowing the Saint John Regional Hospital to purchase the genetic sequencing equipment they raised $900,000 for.
It was the announcement many had been waiting for.
The Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation had raised $900,000 over the past year to purchase genetic sequencing equipment.
But they were told in March by health minister Victor Boudreau, they couldn’t go ahead with the purchase because of machines owned by the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute in Moncton.
READ MORE: N.B. health minister says ‘no’ to Saint John hospital equipment purchase
The Institute has four of the machines and Boudreau didn’t believe New Brunswick needed any more.
On Monday, the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation, Horizon Health staff members and foundation donors attended a news conference where they laid out their case for the equipment.
On Thursday, both health minister Victor Boudreau and Premier Brian Gallant admitted there were a lot of facts to wade through from both sides.
“Once we looked at it all and we could dissect exactly what they were saying, what each community had in terms of their numbers, we could see that one of the ways we’re going to able to move forward and make sure that everybody wins is that we increase collaboration,” said Gallant.
“We make sure we have a provincial strategy.”
Saint John Regional’s Chief of Staff was also talking collaboration with the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute in Moncton.
“At the end of the day, there’s gonna be tests we don’t do here, panel testing, lots of the tests that he’s described. They shouldn’t be done anywhere else. They should be done at ACRI,” said Dr. John Dornan.
The privately run cancer institute doesn’t see it quite the same way. It says there’s room for only one set of equipment in the province.
“Raping the taxpayers of this province by having two centres, we will be paying the highest cost per test in the country,” said Dr. Rodney Ouellette of the ACRI.
“I’ve said this many, many times and I think that we can get better value if we have one centre so we will bow out.”
The Institute shut down its genetic testing equipment at noon Thursday and will recommend it be shut down permanently.
The Vitalite Health Network says it’s still exploring its options.
The Saint John Regional Hospital Foundations plans on beginning the paperwork to purchase the equipment immediately.
With files from Global’s Andrew Cromwell
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