Continued funding from the Ramsey District Cottage Hospital (RDCH) Welfare Fund has led to improvements in X-ray equipment at the hospital.

The updating of the equipment is the latest in a number of projects, with funding provided jointly by the trustees of the RDCH Welfare Fund and the RDCH Endowment Trustees.

This, according to a spokesperson at Manx Care, will ‘help to maintain RDCH as a modern and well-equipped community hospital, continually developing and expanding its service provision.

Kathleen McDowall, Manx Care’s radiology manager, said: ‘Using fully digital technology, it allows instant viewing of images, and their increased quality has been noted by the consultant radiologists who examine and report on the X-rays.

‘For the patient, this means a quicker and more pleasant experience, while very significantly, for some patients it can mean having an examination on the island rather than travelling to the UK.’

The support from the Welfare Fund has also led to other improvements, such as the availability of plastic surgery at the hospital where previously patients would’ve had to travel to Liverpool.

An echocardiogram machine, which is a specialist ultrasound machine to scan the heart and its surrounding blood vessels, has also been funded.

A spokesperson from Manx Care said: ‘This expands the scope of cardiology outpatient clinics, and provides a more localised service for the convenience of those in the north of the island.’