Plans to purchase a Magnetic Resonsance Imaging unit (MRI) by the Bermuda Hospitals Board could result in higher health insurance premiums, a local insurance company has warned.

The cost of the hi-tech scanner could be between $2 million and $5 million compared to the $500,000 spent each year to send patients abroad to be tested, said BF&M Executive Vice-President and President of the Health Insurance Association of Bermuda, Judy Panchaud-White.

"In principle will it be cost effective?'' she said. "Nearly half a million is spent to send patients abroad to use the equipment.'' She noted that hospitals which use MRI are not much bigger than community-based hospitals like KEMH and that for a small community like Bermuda, the problem ultimately comes down to a matter of payments for use of the equipment by the insurers.

"The MRI could be a very good diagnostic tool which will have an effect on the health care industry,'' she said. "It could be more expensive per person.

"At the end of the day someone has to pay,'' she added. "What is the consumer willing to pay?'' KEMH chief executive Stephanie Reid confirmed negotiations are under way at the hospital on the planned purchasing of the unit.

She said that the hospital has done a research report on the expensive machine and deemed it a useful tool to have on the Island.

Also no foreign specialist will have to be brought to the Island to operate the machine, as there is presently a doctor working at KEMH who is knowledgeable on its use.

For others, concerns centred around the usage of the unit.

In a letter sent to The Royal Gazette , Dorothy Packwood -- widow of former Bermuda Public Library head librarian, historian and author Cyril Packwood Outerbridge -- questioned whether or not the scanner will be used to save lives.

She feared the MRI will become a showpiece for the hospital and questioned why other diagnostic tools were not used for a full diagnosis.

"Despite the great expense, I feel that the MRI could prove its worth if it is used and not kept merely as a window dressing or for hospital prestige,'' she said.

"Medical diagnostic imaging units are invaluable and can mean the difference between life and death.'' Mr. Packwood passed away at the age of 67 two years ago. Mrs. Packwood explained he had just returned form the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland where he had undergone heart surgery.

After returning to the Island, Mr. Packwood began feeling ill and was later taken to the hospital where he was found bleeding internally.

"The medical staff informed me for three nights and three days that they did not know the source of the bleeding,'' she said.

Had the medical staff used the diagnostic equipment, Mrs. Packwood believes that something could have been done.

"Other imaging diagnostic tools, such as the CT-scan and the endoscope were available but not used.

"Eventually my husband's body was unable to cope with the great loss of blood and he succumbed.'' From a health care insurance standpoint, the insurance industry is looking at the expenses which the machine will bring which are assured to result in higher rates for patient.

Ultimately, purchase of the MRI becomes a matter of cost for the upkeep of the unit and also the potential employment of a specialist to operate the unit.

Currently the hospital provides six diagnostic services: X-Rays, CT-scans, mammography, radio isotope studies, bone densitometery and ultrasound.

Mrs. Vanetta Symonds, chief operations officer for Support Service at BHB, said the diagnostic tools are used daily for their various purposes and that almost always they are used in emergency cases.

"Each of the tools have their qualities, as long as the doctors know what it is that they want -- the MRI definitely will be an addition,'' she said.

"Each imager has its strengths, none of it is magic.'' Atempts to contact officials from the Bermuda Hospitals Board concerning plans for the MRI were unsuccessful.

Essentially for Mrs. Packwood the thought lingers -- why wasn't the present technology used? "This shouldn't happen again,'' she said.