Monklands Hospital, part of NHS Lanarkshire recently purchased a Philips Achieva 1.5T MRI scanner.  The new equipment was given the thumbs up at a recent demonstration visit by a group of officials, including Neena Mahal, NHS Lanarkshire vice chair, and Terry Currie, chair of the Acute Operating Management Committee.   Commenting, Ms Mahal said, “I was delighted to see the new MRI scanner at Monklands.  It will enable the hospital to meet the growing demand for its services and provide a more convenient service for patients who previously had to travel to Wishaw or Hairmyes.”   

The scanner, which will provide routine and urgent scans for orthopaedic, medical, surgical and neurological conditions, will also be used in the diagnosis of cancer, breast imaging and non-invasive vascular imaging.  Dr. Julian Guse, Clinical Director and Consultant Radiologist comments, “The ability to produce images with exquisite detail will enable precise and detailed diagnoses to be made and will allow us to offer a more rapid service to our patients using the latest technology.”   Dr. Guse goes on to say, “The support we had from Philips was tremendous.  The demand for this type of scan has increased dramatically over the years and this will no doubt continue to grow in the years ahead.  The introduction of a third MRI scanner was great news for Monklands Hospital, the surrounding community and for Lanarkshire as a whole.”

Retired Consultant Radiologist, Dr. Ken Hughes, who also attended the visit, supported these views with the remark, “It is wonderful to have an MRI scanner at Monklands.  It is a terrific investment, which will prove to be invaluable to the hospital and patients.”

The new system, a Philips Achieva 1.5T A Series 16 channel MRI scanner is designed for today’s clinical and economic realities.    Every system building block, including the 16 channel data acquisition system, SmartExam, dedicated SENSE coils, Philips’ SENSE parallel imaging, the depth and variety of imaging techniques and workflow innovations all contribute to the scanner’s operational excellence.   Its high scan acceleration provides larger anatomic coverage, high spatial and temporal resolution and artefact reduction.                                                   

With the powerful combination of SENSE and the FreeWave data acquisition system and 16-channel coils a complete high resolution diagnostic evaluation of the cervical spine can be performed in less than fifteen minutes.