8 October 2020

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) has secured additional imaging equipment to increase the number of patients that can be scanned as it continues to restore services following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SaTH, which runs The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford (PRH), is also looking at ways to further increase capacity for scanning over the coming months.

Already in place, or scheduled to be in place are:

  • A mobile MRI scanner, which was put in place at RSH on 5 October and will remain for three months.
  • A mobile CT scanner, which was put in place at PRH on 5 October and is expected to be in use until 2021.
  • A mobile MRI scanner, which will be in place at PRH from November for three months.

In addition to this, the Trust also hopes to secure funding for further permanent CT and MRI units, which would come into service in the New Year.

As well as establishing new physical facilities for SaTH to provide better care during the winter, the additional scanners will allow patients from the Trust’s routine waiting list to be scanned.

Nigel Lee, Chief Operating Officer at SaTH, said: “Over the last few months we have had to make significant changes to the way we work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the temporary suspension of routine Radiology services.

“The addition of these new scanners will allow us to see many more people from our routine waiting lists which include ultrasound, CT and MRI scans as well as x-rays. This will help us to clear our backlog and return to the high performance we were achieving before the pandemic.

To further speed up the recovery process of Radiology services, SaTH is also working with system partners to provide additional appointment capacity. This may mean some people receive appointments to attend for CT and MRI scans, as well as chest x-rays, at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital in Oswestry. Patients are encouraged to accept these appointments as they may mean they are seen sooner than if they were to wait for an appointment at either RSH or PRH.

It was recently announced that, in addition to the new scanning facilities, SaTH has been awarded £6.3 million by the Government to establish new physical facilities help prepare for winter. This funding will be used to create a new Same Day Emergency Care centre at RSH to help ease pressure on its A&E, and reduce hospital admissions.