Magnet for new scanner arrives

The magnet is 150 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field

An 18-month wait for an MRI scanner for thousands of Kent hospital patients is nearing an end after the installation of a vital magnet.

The 4.4 ton superconducting magnet has been moved into place at Pembury Hospital this weekend.

The hospital's previous scanner was installed nine years ago and was condemned as too old in March 2002.

Since then patients in mid-Kent have had to use a mobile scanner or travel to Maidstone for scans.

MRI (magnetic resonance) scanners use a strong magnetic field to allow doctors to see internal organs and other tissues.

'Highly-detailed images'

The new scanner at the hospital, near Tunbridge Wells, has cost £800,000.

The magnet is so powerful it is 150 times the strength of the earth's magnetic field.

Patients are placed inside the magnet and a radio frequency shakes up molecules in the body, which helps provide the image.

The scanner's magnetic field to allow doctors to see internal organs

Local NHS Trust management said it would still be a few weeks before it was in use once it had been fully installed and tested, but they welcomed the improvement it would make to the service.

Bob Pepper of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, said: "What this enables us to do is to get some absolutely superb, very highly-detailed images of people, sections of patients which we just wouldn't have been able to do with the older machinery."

Since the last scanner was taken out of use, around 3,000 patients have had to be treated with the mobile scanner or travel the 15 miles to Maidstone.

Campaigner and fundraiser Simon Bender said: "It's a great relief to see it going in but I can't help thinking of the people that are suffering as a result of the lack of an MRI scanner in this area for nearly two years."