Fund-raisers boost MRI capacity at Royal Bournemouth

Royal Bournemouth Hospital has officially unveiled its new Esaote extremity MRI scanner, the O-scan Premium, after a successful year-long appeal.

Bournemouth Hospital Charity asked the community to help raise money for the O-scan to allow the trust to reduce waiting times and provide a more economical, comfortable treatment path for patients.

Superintendent radiographer CT and MRI Matthew Benbow said: “We are very excited to be able to offer a new way of performing MRI scans on patients’ feet, knees, elbows and wrists. With current body scanners, examinations of limbs often mean the patient must lie in a pretty uncomfortable position. With the new scanner this issue is eliminated and comfort is greatly increased. We will be able to alleviate pressure on the other MRI scanners so they can be freed up to perform high demand examinations such as prostate, spine and cardiac MRI.”

The scanner has been installed in a disused ultrasound room and will be run by one radiographer making it a cost-effective solution to adding MRI capacity. The hospital will be sharing its initial experiences at the British Association of MR Radiographers conference in October.

Picture: Esaote country manager/director UK&I Jayesh Odedra, superintendent radiographer CT and MRI Matthew Benbow, consultant radiologist Dr Andy Pope, trustee of Talbot Village Trust Russell Lucas-Rowe, Esaote MRI applications specialist EMEA/WE Luca Dodero and Royal Bournemouth Hospital deputy chief executive Paula Shobbruck.

Published on page 2 of the July 2019 issue RAD Magazine.