Newly-formed charity Mannin Cancers has announced the launch of an ambitious joint fundraising appeal with Manx Breast Cancer Support Group to raise £1.5 million to buy two new computerised tomography (CT) scanners for Noble’s Hospital, writes Julie Blackburn.

The new scanners will have a wide range of uses, including being able to detect all types of cancers at a very early stage, to give the best chance of a cure.

Radiology departments now encompass a range of diagnostic machines, from the simple x-ray to ultrasound and the cross-sectional machines, CT and MRI scanners.

’These cross-sectional machines are the ultimate diagnostic tools,’ said consultant radiologist, Dr Vanina Finocchi.

Demand for cross-sectional imaging has increased exponentially in recent years and the CT and MRI scanners at Noble’s Hospital are due to be replaced and upgraded.

Dr Finocchi said: ’This is where the highest demand is and in CT and MRI there has been a continuous development, continuous improvement, continuous growth and there have been huge advances in new technology and new ideas.

’We have two CT scanners and one MRI machine and we are due to replace them. The CT machine we have is a good CT machine, it does what it’s supposed to do, but the technology has advanced so much that new ideas have come into the market and new horizons have opened and the cancer charities have given us a fantastic and invaluable opportunity to say: "Now that we have to upgrade, let’s do it in the best way we can."

’They have given us the possibility of having machines that not even the northwest of England have: we are going for the top of the line.’

So why should the Isle of Man have something that good?

The answer is very simple and it’s this: if you live in some parts of England, being able to go to a specialist centre where they have the latest cross-sectional diagnostic machines is usually as simple as driving for an hour or so down the motorway. It’s not so easy for patients here.

One of the capabilities of the latest CT scanners that Mannin Cancers and Manx Breast Cancer Support Group will be raising the money to buy offers a very clear example of the advantages: they will be able to do cardiac CT scans which the current machines at Noble’s can’t do.

At the moment 500 people every year have to be flown off the island, some of them by air ambulance, for a cardiac CT scan.

Quite apart from the inconvenience and disruption this causes, often to patients who are already very poorly, being able to have their scans done in the island will clearly save our health service a huge amount of money in travel costs alone.

Dr Finocchi said: ’Only a percentage of those who go across for a cardiac CT scan will have to stay for treatment but at the moment we have to send them all off the island.

’Every time that somebody has to go across it’s a nightmare for the patient, it’s a nightmare for us and economically it’s a complete waste.

’What we now envision is to build a new cross-sectional suite: we want to create the possibility of giving patients here the best there is.’

The highly specialised nature of the images the new machines will provide will mean that it will not always be possible to provide appropriately specialised people in our own radiology department at Noble’s Hospital to interpret them, despite the DHSC having granted the department a staffing increase.

But quite clearly it is a far simpler matter to send digital images to a specialist centre in England than it is to send a patient, as Dr Finocchi explained: ’We can’t specialise in everything here but we can send the images to the best specialist people without creating any disruption to the patients.

’We are going to be able to scan patients in the best way possible and, if it goes beyond our capacity of reporting, we are able to export the images to specialist centres.

’This means that an Isle of Man patient will be able to have exactly the same treatment they would have in one of these specialist centres without ever leaving the island.’

The DHSC intends to use the capital funding that would have paid for the upgrade to the current CT scanners to pay for the high level building works that will be required to create the planned cross-sectional suite.

This will include works such as lead lining the walls and providing a separate, dedicated reception area.

Staff from the radiology department are currently in the process of evaluating the latest machine on the market.

Because of the continuing march of technology, they are very much aware of the need to future-proof their purchase so they will be looking at machines recently purchased by hospitals, not only in England but also in Europe. They are even planning to look at a machine that is currently still in production in a factory in Germany.

Julie Stokes from Mannin Cancers is also chairman of the Manx Breast Cancer Support Group, which raised the money to build and equip the Manx Breast Unit.

She said: ’From the charities’ point of view we will just take a step back and let the clinicians decide what machines they want. We represent the patients, as we did with the Manx Breast Unit, and what’s really, really important to us is that the patient experience is as good as it can possibly get.

’This is a once in 10 years opportunity to get things right so why not take this opportunity to do this better and properly and get the most out of it.’

The fundraising appeal was officially launched on Sunday at Woodbourne House in Douglas and was attended by Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Gozney, Health Minister David Ashford, Mayor of Douglas Jon Joughin and staff from Noble’s Hospital radiology department.

Mrs Stokes said: ’This is a big day for both of our charities. We will be working together with the team at Noble’s Hospital to replace the CT scanners with the very best. If you or your company would like to help us we would love to hear from you.’