Isotope shortage affecting Yarmouth hospital

On Dec. 7 South West Health issued a news release indicating that about 30 appointments had been cancelled and that more were being cancelled.

Things changed, however, a few days later when the hospital received isotopes it hadn’t anticipated getting.

“We actually were able to do 58 patients this week,” hospital spokesperson Barb Johnson said Friday afternoon. “We were able to take care of those appointments that we’d cancelled, plus a few extra.”

The hospital was not expecting a shipment of isotopes this week but was anticipating one Dec. 24, Johnson said.

Appointments cancelled for this week (the week of Dec. 17) would be rescheduled for a date after the next delivery of isotopes, she said.

Nuclear medicine is a diagnostic tool that uses small amounts of radioactive material to determine the presence and level of disease such as cancer, infection and fractures.

In the South West Health district nuclear medicine scans are primarily used for bone scans, thyroid, kidney, heart and gall bladder studies.

These examinations provide important information to health-care professionals as they determine the best care plan for their patients.

The isotope shortage was created with the extended shutdown of the nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, which produces most of the world’s radioisotopes.

Last week the federal government passed emergency legislation authorizing the reactor to start operating again.