01 January 2019
A new £1 million MRI scanner at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) is helping to reduce waiting and travel time for cardiac patients who previously had to be seen out of Shropshire for their scans.
The state-of-the-art scanner was purchased by the League of Friends of the RSH last year after they raised an incredible £1 million to fund it to mark their 50th anniversary.
It was the third new MRI scanner for SaTH which runs both the RSH and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
As well as providing more advanced and high quality images and an enhanced patient experience, the League of Friends’ scanner also has the addition of cardiac imaging – which means that cardiac patients can now be seen at RSH, instead of having to travel out of the county for their scans.
Glen Whitehouse, Radiology Centre Manager at SaTH, said: “The third and final MRI scanner was added to our fleet in April last year after the huge and amazing efforts of our Royal Shrewsbury Hospital League of Friends to raise £1million for this much-needed machine. The third MRI scanner provides us with the capacity we need to support the ever increasing demand for the MRI service and is already running 12 hour days providing fantastic images for our patients.
“The League of Friends’ scanner has always been a bit special because it has the addition of cardiac imaging packages and functionality. Our dedicated MRI team are now providing regular MRI cardiac lists to our patients who would have otherwise had to travel outside of the county for their scans.”
The League of Friends’ scanner is housed in the MRI Suite at the Treatment Centre.
The results of an MRI scan can be used to help diagnose conditions, plan treatments and assess how effective previous treatment has been.