• Mobile unit provides big boost to Royal Bolton Hospital capacity
• More than 6,500 CT and MRI scans carried out since unit opened in November 2021
• NHS chiefs call for people to come forward for care and treatment

A mobile unit at Royal Bolton Hospital is already boosting capacity by offering thousands of MRI and CT scans to local communities.

The scans will help staff diagnose a range of conditions including cancer, heart and lung disease sooner to ensure patients get the care they need more quickly.

More than 6,500 scans have already been carried out since the unit opened in November 2021.

NHS chiefs have today renewed their plea for people to continue to come forward for care, as Bolton pulls out all the stops to address the waits for care and COVID backlogs that have inevitably built up.

Sharon Martin, Director of Strategy and Transformation at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said:

This unit is key in ensuring people get the treatment and care they need as quickly as possible.

“It has been able to help our services recover from COVID-19 by increasing the number of referrals for cross-sectional imaging.

“People must not worry about coming forward for care and being a burden on the NHS, it is vital that people get checked as soon as they can – the earlier we see you, the sooner we can treat you.

Boosting capacity

The NHS is committed to rolling out a network of up to 160 centres across the country, boosting testing capacity so around nine million additional tests and checks can be performed each year by 2025.

In the last week, the NHS announced that more than 1,000,000 tests had been done at these centres across the country with almost 165,000 of these coming from the North West region.

Deborah Mitchell, North West Diagnostics Lead for NHS England North West, said:

After a huge amount of hard work, commitment and effort, we’re glad to see that so many patients have benefitted in Bolton.

“Not only are they convenient but these centres will catch more health conditions at an earlier stage.

Due to the success so far, the Trust is reviewing how the capacity could be expanded by working with the NHS at a national and regional level.