Town to get two new high-tech bone scanners

One of the units will be installed at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital

Grimsby is to get two new bone scanning machines to help spot conditions such as osteoporosis.

The DEXA machines will be installed at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital and the new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), due to open at Freshney Place later this year.

The hospital scanner will be used on frailer patients and is one of 13 in England funded by the government.

Announcing the funding, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said the new machines would provide an extra 30,000 scans a year nationwide.

Craig Jones, chief executive of the Royal Osteoporosis Society, said people in Grimsby who have undiagnosed osteoporosis were "going to benefit enormously" from the new machines.

"Osteoporosis can cause life-threatening fractures, bringing hospitalisation and isolation," he said.

"This new scanner will diagnose thousands of patients early, giving them back the lives and futures they deserve."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the new unit at the CDC will allow GPs to send patients for a scan without needing to refer them for a hospital consultation.

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