SIX new ultrasound scanners will be used to treat patients following a £250,000 investment by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The scanners will replace older equipment which was in need of updating in different departments at Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital.

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And it is also hoped that the new machines, a Toshiba Aplio 500 and Xario 200s which produce high-resolution images, will give patients and hospital staff greater confidence in diagnosis.

Julie White, clinical lead for ultrasound at the trust, said it was key that the trust kept on top of updates to equipment to provide patients with the best service possible.

She said: “Ultrasound technology is advancing rapidly so it is important we update our equipment to maintain high standards of patient care and continue providing safe, high-quality ultrasound services.

“The scans are performed by our team of highly-trained sonographers who are all advanced practitioners, consultant radiologists or consultant obstetricians.”

Burnley General Hospital patients will benefit from three of the new Toshiba Aplio scanners, one in the main X-ray department, one in phase five X-ray department and one in the antenatal department in the Lancashire Women’s and Newborn Centre.

At the Royal Blackburn Hospital, Toshiba scanners have replaced older equipment within the antenatal clinic and vascular laboratory.

Mrs White said: “Patients throughout East Lancashire can be reassured that our new scanners at Burnley and Blackburn hospitals produce even better quality images than the old equipment they replaced.”

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust’s new ultrasound equipment has the benefit of elastography and Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI), which medical chiefs said is particularly useful for the imaging of liver lesions.