THE Journal and the Stars Appeal are working together to raise £1million to buy a second MRI scanner for Salisbury District Hospital.

The second scanner will allow hospital staff to diagnose conditions more quickly with faster, better and more accessible scans, to get patients home as soon as possible. It will use the very latest technology for cutting edge diagnostic techniques including cardiac and prostate MRI.

The hospital’s existing MRI scanner helps thousands of people every year but is now running at full capacity.

It will cost £1.5million in total to buy the new machine, but two donors have already raised £500,000 for the campaign.

The Stars Appeal believe the new scanner will help about 10,000 people every year, helping to diagnose cancer, heart conditions, strokes, brain injury and tumours and many more conditions.

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Graham Branagan is a colorectal surgeon and chairman of the campaign. He said a second scanner would “significantly speed up the process” for patients with rectal cancer, who are currently waiting several weeks for an MRI scan before starting treatment.

He said: “Patients will know whether they need surgery sooner and allow us to start potentially life-saving treatment earlier, with a better chance of ensuring surgery leaves no disease behind.”

Doctors from all hospital departments are united in their bid for the new machine.

Consultant cardiologist Tom Jackson said the machine could replace the need for patients to undergo invasive heart biopsies, and that patients currently have to travel to Southampton or Bournemouth for this test.

Roanne Fiddes is a consultant breast surgeon, and said the MRI machine can be used alongside mammograms to diagnose breast cancer. The second machine would help diagnose cancer in younger patients, where mammograms can be harder to interpret, as well as monitoring the effects of chemotherapy.

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Miss Fiddes said: “Having a second MRI machine will help our patients requiring this type of investigation to receive a thorough diagnosis as quickly as possible. This will ensure that treatment can be planned appropriately and can continue to be provided in a timely fashion.”

Senior consultant cardiologist Tim Wells said an MRI scan had prevented one of his patients from having unnecessary bypass surgery with three months of rehabilitation. Instead the patient had coronary artery stenting (inserting tubes to keep his arteries open) and was back at work in a week.

Paediatric consultant Phil Ridley said the scanner would allow children to be scanned locally and spend less time out of school when ill, and consultant ophthalmologist Rashi Arora said the scanner would help with “life changing” decisions for vision problems.

The Journal has previously helped the Stars Appeal raise money for a second CT scanner in 2013 and a specialist breast care unit in 2014.

Lord Pembroke, president of the Stars Appeal, invited people to join him in raising money for the campaign. He said: “We are extremely fortunate to have one of the very best district hospitals supporting our community. This hospital has cared for my family when sick and my children when born and now it’s our opportunity to once again support our hospital to help make it the best it can be. This second scanner will help save lives, it will help diagnose life-changing injuries and diseases and it will give our staff the best chance to help patients.”

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