NHS Shetland and the Shetland Endowment Committee are pleased to confirm that the MRI scanner project has reached a key milestone and is now tendering for a supplier to provide MRI equipment and facilities in Shetland.

During 2021 staff worked with a number of technical specialists and other NHS Boards to develop an outline for the procurement of the MRI scanner and to agree how the service will be delivered and where it will be located. Now that work has been completed, National Services Scotland  (NSS) is managing the tender process which we expect will result in a preferred supplier being identified by the end of 2022.

Lincoln Carroll, Chair of the Shetland Endowment Committee said: ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank our community and all the other donors for their fundraising efforts which has made it possible for us to bring MRI services to Shetland. It is a truly remarkable community fund raising effort and will make an enormous difference to the lives of so many people. The benefit to all of the Shetland community cannot be underestimated. The Endowment committee is grateful for the huge effort by people from all over Shetland and is proud to have been involved in the fundraising efforts.”

There will be work undertaken in 2022 to prepare the Gilbert Bain Hospital site which will include the addition of new supplies for power and other utilities and the demolition of some older buildings to make space for the MRI scanning department. During 2023, we will begin the purchase, installation and commissioning process with the aim that the MRI scanner is fully operational by autumn 2023.

Kathleen Carolan, Director of Nursing & Acute Services said: “We are really pleased to be at the stage of tendering to purchase the MRI scanner which will help us to understand when the MRI will be in Shetland, fully installed and ready for patient care. Our clinical and technical teams have worked really hard to keep the project on track during 2021 but there have been some inevitable delays due to the impact of the pandemic, particularly on the supply of complex medical equipment which is a global issue and has added six to nine months to the timescales in which we hoped to have the MRI scanner in place.