Bradford is in line for a second £1 million MRI scanner, it was announced today.

Department of Health chiefs said they would give Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust the cash for the new scanner.

It means patients who currently have to wait a year for a scan will be seen much more quickly.

The city's first scanner was bought three years ago following a Telegraph & Argus appeal which raised £1 million.

The body scanner is a key diagnostic tool for doctors in the fight against cancer and a range of other conditions but huge demand has pushed waiting lists to over a year. Now, with confirmation of a second magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, doctors in the city plan a blitz on waiting times.

Dr Clive Kay, pictured, director of radiology for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, who been pushing NHS chiefs for a second scanner, said: "This is tremendous news for the people of Bradford.

"It will have a major and positive impact on the waiting lists for MRI scans, demand which continues to grow on a weekly basis across the district."

In October last year the Telegraph & Argus revealed how the first scanner - paid for by the people of Bradford - had become a victim of its own success.

At first patients were being scanned within ten weeks, but three years on demand for the scanner has soared and there are now more than 1,000 people waiting 53 weeks for a routine scan.

"We are using it at full capacity, including special evening sessions and it is still not good enough," said Dr Kay.

"So we desperately need another scanner to make inroads into ridiculous waiting times. It is crazy to wait a year."

The Yorkshire Cancer Network, an NHS organisation set up in 1998 to improve cancer care in West and North Yorkshire, has chosen Bradford to house an additional scanner because of the increasingly important role the city's hospitals are playing as regional centres for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with the illness.

The scanner - which will cost more than £1 million - is being funded through the Department of Health and should be up and running, scanning its first patients by this time next year.

It is hoped it will be housed near to the first scanner at Bradford Royal Infirmary to make full use of the facilities which were put in place three years ago.

With the official confirmation of the second scanner health chiefs now plan a recruitment drive.

"We now have an agreement to recruit extra staff and we are also training up two of our own radiographers," said Dr Kay.