Ealing Hospital to get MRI scanner and new Cardiac Investigation Unit

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State of the art facilities will provide locally-based services

Two new units are being developed at Ealing Hospital to provide important new clinical services which will ensure local people no longer have to travel into London for specialist treatment.

A new Cardiac Investigation Unit is currently being developed on Level 4 of the hospital which will allow doctors in the award winning Ealing heart team (Professor Kooner won Hospital Doctor of the Year and the Ealing team are Hospital Cardiology Team of the Year) to carry out cardiac catheterisation procedures, providing accurate information about damaged and diseased hearts and what treatment is required.

Meanwhile, a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner unit will be taking shape over the next couple of months. MRI provides doctors with extremely well defined and accurate images of soft tissue in the body and enables doctors to make accurate diagnosis of deep lying injuries and diseases.

The new £2.5 million unit will be constructed by Kier Southern in pre-built modular pods which will be fitted out before arrival and then lifted on to the hospital site by a crane to create a new two storey building. The MRI scanner, weighing six tons, will also be winched by crane into its new home.

Trust Chief Executive, Fiona Wise, said: “These are tremendous new additions to the range of services we provide for local people. Until now, heart patients requiring an angiogram or other investigations, had to travel to Hammersmith Hospital or further afield. From January 1 2006, our cardiac team will be able to offer these services at Ealing.

“The MRI scanner will be an important new addition to our imaging and diagnostic service enabling doctors to make speedy and detailed diagnosis. The new MRI suite is going to be erected adjacent to the pharmacy and outpatients departments over the next couple of months and should be ready to begin work in March 2006. There will be some disruption during the construction period as the crane lifts the pods into place we apologise now for any noise or loss of parking spaces during this time.”

 

November 22, 2005