Hospital reveals €2.5m CT suite

Designed to ease patient anxiety and deliver significant improvements in the quality of the images produced, the new €2.5m CT suite at the Mercy University Hospital is a perfect blend of the comfortable and the clinical.

Gone is the grim room that did little to alleviate the intimidating experience of undergoing a heavy-duty diagnostic test, and in its place is an airy space where palm trees and a balmy blue sky — courtesy of light boxes lining the ceiling — provide a welcome distraction for patients.

Andy Owen, radiographic services manager, said the suite was specifically designed with patients’ needs in mind, given many find the experience claustrophobic. In addition, the new scanners allow an expansion of services at the hospital — previously, cardiac patients had to be referred for scans to Cork University Hospital but the new technology means far more sophisticated imaging can be done on site.