» Help to transform and save lives as appeal launches
WHEN someone falls seriously ill, it is not just the care they receive but breakthroughs in technology that can help them survive. Vital equipment such as CT scanners and X-ray machines are used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help diagnose patients and to ensure they get the right treatment as quickly as possible. The radiology teams at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospitals are battling increased demand with scanners at full capacity which means patients can face a longer wait. That is why the Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity has today launched a CT Scanner Appeal. They want your help to raise a further £1.2m to help buy three new CT scanners and two digital mobile X-ray machines. This state-of-the-art technology will make a huge difference for people with a wide range of conditions, including those fighting cancer or heart disease, emergency patients and premature babies who need urgent medical treatment. Annually almost 80,000 people have a CT scan or a mobile X-ray at Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital – a number which increases every year. Computed tomography (CT) scanners use X-rays and a computer to help diagnose patients quickly by taking detailed 360-degree images of what is happening inside the body.
Lily Bailey, superintendent CT radiographer at NHS Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This scanner appeal is vitally important as it affects so many different types of patients in Gloucestershire.
“It is predicted that one in two people will be affected by cancer in Gloucestershire at some point in their life and the scanners are essential to their diagnosis and treatment.
“We also see many emergency patients coming into our department. With new scanners we will be able to get faster results and better quality images.”
Mobile digital X-ray machines provide immediate images which means patients can be diagnosed there and then instead of waiting for results from the traditional scan.
The new mobile machines will help
people with urgent medical conditions and the neonatal team will be able to use them to see where to place vital treatment lines in premature babies in an instant.
Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity director of fundraising Kate Green said: “We have secured £1.2m which is fantastic, but we need people’s help to raise a further £1.2m to buy all three of our new scanners and mobile X-ray machines.
“Our hospitals are constantly balancing the needs of the emergency department and any urgent scans, as well as booked outpatient appointments and sadly this can mean delays for patients.
“Having more scanners with state-ofthe-art technology really will help reduce anxious waiting time for people and help to save and transform lives enabling early detection and diagnosis.”
Sports journalist and father of one Will Perringwood, 35, is supporting the campaign after he suffered a brain haemorrhage. “ANYTHING which can be done to detect potential health problems early such as CT scans is so vital.
“My stroke came out of the blue, but doctors told my family it was caused by a type of birth mark on my brain which could have been picked up if I had undergone a scan earlier in my life.
“On March 2, 2013 I suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage or brain bleed - known as a haemorrhagic stroke where doctors told me I would never move my left-hand side.
“I was found fitting outside my Cheltenham flat and rushed to Bristol’s Frenchay Hospital where I underwent a lengthy operation to remove the bleed.
“I spent two weeks in an induced coma so my body could heal, then I was able to move closer to home to Cheltenham General Hospital before I went to Salisbury rehabilitation hospital for eight months of learning and improving all the basic things I once took for granted, such as walking.
“Throughout my time in hospital I had many CT scans.
“At first, they can feel a little daunting and it felt like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind with all the different lights, but they are fantastic bits of equipment which we are extremely lucky to have.
“I am backing this appeal to not just help raise the money needed but also to say thank you to the NHS staff in Gloucestershire.
“The care my family and I received from everyone was second to none, therefore I would struggle to put into words the gratitude I have for everyone my family and I encountered.
“Without the fantastic support and the amazing equipment, I doubt I would have been able to walk down the aisle in 2016 or hold my son Reggie who was born a year ago.
“This year I also achieved a dream of running the London Marathon and I did it in under five hours.
“With all the good this appeal can do, I fully support it and urge more people to get behind it.”