Spire Southampton Hospital planned investment

Plans are in place to invest nearly £2 million into new diagnostic equipment at Spire Southampton Hospital later this month.

The hospital, which is based at Chalybeate Close, has spent £1.8 million in purchasing a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner that will allow for quicker and quieter scans. The new equipment will offer an improved resolution and detection of abnormalities, speeding up the overall time to reach a clinical diagnosis.

Once launched, the state-of-the-art machine will be available as part of the agreement Spire Healthcare, alongside the whole of the independent sector, has signed with NHS to provide additional capacity.  As part of this agreement, Spire Healthcare is making available the capacity of its hospitals to the NHS to help alleviate the additional pressure brought about by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Fiona Taylor, the Hospital Director at Spire Southampton Hospital, said: “This significant sum of investment comes at a critical time when all Spire hospitals and its staff are gearing up to support the NHS with tackling COVID-19. This MRI scanner will help us to reach timely and more accurate diagnoses for patients with other urgent medical conditions that need investigating or treatment.

“Once Spire Southampton is back to ‘business as usual’, the scanner will be available for patients to book on a ‘one off’ basis so they can receive a scan quickly before being treated by us, or returning to the NHS. Having this equipment expands our offering to a wider pool of local people and Spire Southampton can’t wait to start using it, later in the month.”