A NEW unit will house a specialist camera to increase capacity for cancer scanning and cut waiting times at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Building work is underway on the hospital site, which is run by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

The new gamma camera, which is used to detect cancer, paediatric conditions and other acute conditions, will be in use this year.

It will produce better quality images, improve turnaround times for issuing reports and reduce scanning times, which will enable more patients to be seen, a trust spokesperson said.

It is also hoped that the state-of-the-art equipment will attract staff with specialist skills and help with retention of the trust’s workforce.

A team of radiographers and an assistant practitioner specialising in Nuclear Medicine Radiography will work along the radiologist in the new unit, which is next to the Evolution Scanning Unit that houses a CT and an MRI scanner.