A £1.1MILLION MRI scanner has been delivered to the new Victoria Hospital which will improve patient services.

The mammoth task meant a wall was removed in order to get the valuable piece of equipment into the hospital on Glasgow's South Side which is due to open its doors in the summer.

It is the first hi-tech MRI scanner of its kind to serve patients in the south of the city and was delivered to the new £100million hospital on Wednesday.

The new equipment will be used by around 20 patients every day. It is a huge boost as the existing Victoria Infirmary does not have this kind of scanner, which can be used to spot cancerous tumours.

It means patients will no longer have to travel to the Southern General as it will soon be on their doorstep.

The hospital will replace the Victoria Infirmary in the city's South Side and already various pieces of equipment are being brought in.

Installation of the scanner was a major logistical exercise which involved a section of wall being dismantled and then rebuilt around the new piece of equipment.

Before the first brick of the new hospital was laid architects and planners had already designed a section of wall in the hospital that could be dismantled, at the last stages of construction, so that a MRI scanner could be safely installed.

Allan Stephen, site manager with contractors Balfour Beatty, said: "It's been quite a big day for us. We are just happy it all went smoothly."

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's Stuart Sloss, assistant general manager for Imaging, was on site to oversee the MRI installation.

Stuart said: "We have spent a lot of time planning for today and will now spend the next six weeks commissioning this major piece of hospital equipment."

MRI scanning is not the only first the new hospital will bring to local patients. When it opens this summer, the New Victoria Hospital will also offer South Siders chemotherapy and renal dialysis services for the first time.

Friday 13th March 2009

By Deborah Anderson

Reproduced with the permission of The Evening Times, Glasgow © 2009 Herald & Times Group