A FUND-RAISING appeal to buy an MRI scanner for the Princess Elizabeth Hospital will soon be launched. Patients who are well enough to travel currently have to go to Jersey to use the facility there.

‘Some who might benefit from an MRI but are too ill to travel currently have no access, so we have wanted a scanner on-island for many years,’ said Health minister Peter Roffey.

The machine would cost £750,000 and a special building would be needed to house it. A further £200,000 would be needed to upgrade the IT system.

The Health Department wrote to two or three of the larger banks in search of financial support.

Credit Suisse stepped in to pledge £300,000 towards the cost of the scanner to commemorate its 20th year in Guernsey and 150 years in business.

Deputy Roffey said he was overwhelmed by the bank’s ‘incredibly generous offer,’ which would get the appeal off to a flying start.

Credit Suisse Guernsey chief executive officer, Albert Good, said his company was delighted to contribute towards the cost of a piece of equipment that was so essential to the diagnosis of medical conditions.

Deputy Roffey said the initial target would be to raise the £750,000.

‘Ideally we would like to cover some of the other costs, but if we can get that amount we would find some way of managing the other costs, which might involve borrowing money,’ he said.

A small income stream that the scanner would generate could help finance any loan.

‘The scanner will principally be used for the work that the department needs to do,

but that would not occupy it for the full 10

sessions per week and so we would be able to do some private work,’ he said.

The specialist building that comes with the equipment houses a Faraday cage, which contains the magnetism involved in the process and stops it affecting other areas. Deputy Roffey said the ‘imaging suite’ would be placed near the day patient unit. While this would need approval from Environment, he did not think there would be a problem. It would also contain a new CT scanner, he said, as the hospital was in the process of replacing its existing one.

He said funding by public appeal was common in UK hospitals and the level of response locally was uncertain. The appeal will be launched through BBC Radio Guernsey.

‘It may be hard work or we might be overwhelmed by the support,’ he said. ‘We just don’t know.’

An average of 10 Guernsey patients per week are sent to Jersey for MRI scans depending on clinical demand, but it can be as many as 20.

The Jersey scanner is currently used between 16 and 20 times each day for up to six day each week.