It is fantastic to share the news that our first patients have had their MRI scans at the new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Telford.
The state-of-the-art scanner worth nearly £1.4 million was installed at the CDC in December and will provide patients with faster access to diagnostic tests.
Kim Pritchard said she was delighted to be our first patient to have an MRI scan and she attended with her sister June, who also had an MRI appointment booked for the same day.
The CDC at Hollinswood House, Stafford Park, is such a great facility and means that patients who need non-urgent diagnostic tests or blood tests no longer need to go to hospital for them.
It also means that we are able to provide patients with the tests and scans they need more quickly in a community setting and away from our acute hospital sites. It will also help to reduce waiting times for non-urgent tests.
Around £10.5 million of national funding has been awarded for the conversion of Hollinswood House to create the CDC, where services are being provided by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).
The new scanner is currently open for appointments five days a week but there are plans to extend this in the future to provide MRI appointments seven days a week.
We will once more be opening the doors of our maternity services to the public on Saturday 24 February.
If you are pregnant, considering parenthood or are interested in what we do, we would like to welcome you to the Shropshire Women and Children’s Centre at The Princess Royal Hospital in Telford to learn more.
The open day will offer you the opportunity to go on a guided tour of different areas including our delivery suite, midwife led unit and our postnatal ward.
You will also be able to meet some of our teams, take part in Q&A sessions with midwives, watch simulation training and visit information stalls. We will be sharing more details over the next few weeks.
Good luck to my colleague Nigel Lee, Director of Strategy and Partnerships, and his son Flight Lieutenant Tom Lee who will this week be attempting to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Tom, who is currently based at Lossiemouth, and his father are hoping to raise £6,000 for SaTH Charity’s Cancer Fund and the RAF Benevolent Fund, which supports servicemen and their families.
Nigel says the money raised for SaTH Charity will be directly used to support additional pieces of equipment, helping surgeons reduce patients’ length of stay and post operative medication.
You can follow their progress on Instagram @fatherandsonforcharity
You can donate to the Just Giving page for the climb here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/NigelandTomNHSandRAF