ELY S Princess of Wales Hospital has received a £115,000 investment with the installation of new state-of-the-art digital X-ray equipment. The new machines will mean patients will get faster examinations, cutting down waiting times. Eventually, X-rays wi

ELY'S Princess of Wales Hospital has received a £115,000 investment with the installation of new state-of-the-art digital X-ray equipment.

The new machines will mean patients will get faster examinations, cutting down waiting times.

Eventually, X-rays will also be able to be sent electronically to other treatment centres allowing the hospital to increase the number of patients passing through the department.

Last year, the hospital carried out about 8,000 X-rays, most of them for patients attending its walk-in clinics.

Now digital images will be produced instead of film, allowing staff to carry out faster X-rays, and secure electronic links to Huntingdon's Hinchingbrooke Hospital have already been put in place.

Some of the money for the £30,000 X-ray machine and £85,000 for its installation was raised by The Friends of the Princess of Wales Hospital.

Victor Lucas, chairman of Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust's Provider Services Board, said: "The new equipment will mean patients needing X-rays will receive easier and faster examinations with minimal waiting times."

Mike Oldham, Cambridgeshire PCT's radiology service manager, said: "An exciting future lies ahead with the possible installation of digital imaging and information systems at both Doddington and North Cambs hospitals, reflecting those systems now in place at Ely.

"This further development will enable images to be sent to other sites, helping to reduce the time it takes to provide GPs, other referrers and ultimately their patients with the findings from their X-ray.