Bradford's new state-of-the-art MRI scanner is set to be the only one of its kind in Europe.

Delighted hospital bosses announced today they had selected the scanner they hope to install at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

They believe it will not only provide a crucial extra element of care for thousands of patients but will also put the city firmly in the premier league of medical technology.

Now fundraisers for the T&A-backed Bradford Millennium Scanner Appeal are setting their sights on a final push to raise the remaining £68,000 towards the £1 million target.

David Jackson, chief executive at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, said the choice of scanner was an important milestone.

"We still have a lot of money to raise before we reach our target but we have every confidence in the local community continuing its support for the appeal," he said.

"I hope that the people of Bradford will be pleased to know that their hard work will be rewarded with the most advanced machine that money can buy.

"The new scanner really will propel us into the 21st century."

A team of hospital experts painstakingly considered the performances of several scanners.

The model chosen - a 1.0 Tesla developed by leading American manufacturers GE - gives the best-quality images and also scores highly for its patient-friendly design.

Superintendent radiographer Stephen Gibbs, who specialises in MRI, paid a fact-finding visit to America to see the machine in operation.

"Its all-round scanning ability is tailor-made for the type of work that will be carried out in Bradford and the results I saw were excellent," he said. "It will be equally effective in every field of our work, whether it be scanning of children, patients with vascular disease, multiple sclerosis sufferers, cancer patients and any number of other conditions."

The scanner selected has been specially designed to give a feeling of space and prevent the sense of claustrophobia which overtakes some patients during scans.

Mr Gibbs said: "The scanner will give us an extra dimension to our service.

"Because it is so technologically advanced, we will have not only caught up with other hospitals who have their own scanner, we will have overtaken them."

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