MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Urology patients at Mandeville Regional Hospital are set to benefit from the use of a Vio s can machine donated last Friday by Rotarians.

The machine is particularly useful for patients who depend on catheters, which are tubes that are inserted into the bladder, allowing urine to drain freely.

Speaking at the handover ceremony at the hospital, Dr Kimberly Freeman, president of the Rotary Club of Mandeville, said the Vioscan is worth about $700,000.

“As a dental surgeon in the government system, I understand how dire there is a need for machines to make work much easier and to spread across the community. As the president of the Rotary Club of Mandeville, I try my best to fulfil that need. We are partnering with the Mandeville Regional Hospital by donating this Vioscan… and we just want to see it be used,” she said.

Dr Sean Jones, consultant urologist at the hospital, said the machine will be primarily used in the Catheter Clinic “where patients come every four to six weeks to change their catheters without any thorough testing being done on the spot”.

He said the machine will give on the spot diagnosis for patients.

“Normally, we would have to send the patients out to get an ultrasound scan done to know whether or not what we are doing is successful, but this machine here will allow us many different on the spot diagnosis. We take out the patient’s catheter, [so] we can know if they are ready to have a trial of voiding and then when they void we can do a quick scan of them to make sure [that] they are empty, so they don’t go home half full and have to come back in the night, because they are gaining retention,” he explained.

“The patients in the clinic tend to develop bladder stones over time and if you don’t pick up the bladder stone and you just take out the catheter then they end up back in the emergency unit to have the catheter replaced,” he added.

He said the machine will assist in the filtering of patients in the Catheter Clinic towards their medical management or surgical management for the removal of their catheters “so that they don’t have to depend on the clinic”.

He expressed thanks to the Rotary Club of Mandeville for its continued support of urology.

“This is our second major donation. The other ultrasound machine [is] in the main clinic. This one (Vioscan) is for the designated Catheter Clinic… This is a major step forward for us,” he said.

Alwyn Miller, the hospital’s chief executive officer, thanked the Rotary Club for its continued assistance.

He said the Vioscan will assist in reducing the admission of patients.

“I must say that in terms of the Rotary Club and our clinical team, it is admirable that they are constantly looking for technology and means to make our clinics more efficient and to make the patient experience in our hospital better. This is a tool that will advance the efficiency of our clinic,” said Miller.