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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifers will still be waiting for the digital mammography machine at Stanton Territorial Hospital to be installed for at least a couple more months.

That's later than the timeline given previously by Robin Greig, director of operations at Stanton, who said last spring the hospital was aiming to have the new machine in place by June.

The Run For Our Lives committee raised $300,000 in October 2010 to purchase the new digital equipment, which is to provide clearer images and help with early detection of breast cancer. The Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation rounded out the funding by raising the remaining $100,000 needed for the machine.

Kay Lewis, chief executive officer of the Stanton Territorial Health Authority, said officials are in the final stages of the technical evaluation of the request for proposals from various vendors. She said, depending on the availability of a digital mammography machine and the resources to install it, it is still at least a couple of months away from being operational.

"This is always the challenge with balancing that you're getting the right equipment and due diligence on behalf of these KFPs - and spending the resources and trying to get the equipment in and up and running as soon as possible," she said.

Then there is the issue of the sterilization equipment at Stanton Territorial Hospital, where two of the three sterilization machines have needed repairs on and off since January, effectively limiting the capacity to perform elective surgeries there. More than 200 elective surgeries were cancelled between January and April of this year.

Lewis said there's been significant progress since then, and officials are in the final stages of confirming that the sterilization equipment is meeting all of the standards.

"We are targeting that we will be up to full capacity very shortly," she said. "We've had to err on the side of caution, so no one is placed at risk and we are confident that we are really back up to standards in processing."

Lewis said elective surgeries could start again by Aug. 12. But then she qualified that target, saying clearance will have to come from the Health Minister before the sterilization equipment is cleared for service and elective surgeries can be performed at the hospital again.

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