Royal Sussex Hospital: Queues as MRI scanner was broken

A crucial part of an MRI machine at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton failed in December meaning doctors were not able to see images produced by the scanner.

One patient suffering from cancer, who wished to remain anonymous, was due to be given drugs to stop the disease from growing - and required an MRI for the treatment to be administered.

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But her appointment was pushed back after the scanner stopped working.

Her daughter told The Argus: "It's horrible. She will just die quicker. We tried to go private but it is too complicated, so we have to stay with the NHS."

The hospital spent six weeks repairing the machine's gradient coil, which was back up and running again by the end of January.

This meant that appointments had to be cancelled - while urgent appointments were moved to one of the other two scanners at the hospital.

But now patients face waiting lists several months long, as the hospital deals with the aftermath of the failure.

A spokeswoman for the trust told The Argus: "We are now reviewing the backlog and managing the patient waiting list by prioritising patients by clinical need, with the aim of being fully recovered within a few months."

The Louisa Martindale building (Image: University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust)

It encouraged patients with concerns to contact the Pals team at 01273 664511, 01273 664973 or uhsussex.pals@nhs.net.

This comes after a new diagnostic centre opened at Southlands Hospital in Shoreham with CT scanners, MRI scanners and three X-ray rooms.

Since opening in October the facility has tested 14,000 patients.