Delighted Jamie opens hospital unit (From Western Telegraph)

Delighted Jamie opens hospital unit

BBC Wales presenter Jamie Owen on Thursday officially opened a £300,000 state-of-the-art fluoroscopy unit at Withybush Hospital.

The new unit, which replaces one installed in 1992, will permit live x-ray pictures to be viewed from almost any angle and be instantly recorded.

Jamie said: "I am delighted to have been asked to open this unit in Withybush Hospital, as I first came here as a schoolboy and a patient, after having knocked myself out.

"Many members of my family have been patients here and so I have many memories of Withybush and I am very passionate about its future.

"The new unit is a splendid asset and the people of Pembrokeshire and I wish the staff all the best with their new investment."

The new unit ensures that any test can be completed without waiting for films to be developed and checked, and it also substantially reduces the radiation dose associated with the older technologies.

It will permit certain procedures previously performed in the operating theatres to be performed within radiology, freeing-up valuable theatre sessions for other surgical operations.

Jamie Owen was welcomed by Peter Davies, superintendent radiographer and service manager; Lynette George, Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust chairman; Frank O'Sullivan, chief executive; Arnold Williams, radiologist, and Karen Bradshaw, lead clinician.

The project was funded from the trust's discretionary capital, plus money from the National Assembly for diagnostic equipment replacement.