A £23,000 ultrasound scanner has been donated to St Helier Hospital.

The state-of-the-art ‘M Turbo scanner’ was donated by the hospital’s League of Friends and will be used for assessment of patients with a range of conditions including thyroid disease, gall stones, hernias and vascular patients.

The scanner was presented to surgeon Dr Paul Thomas who said: “We are incredibly grateful to the League of Friends for their generous donation of this fantastic piece of equipment.  

"Bedside ultrasound is being increasingly used by surgeons – and without blowing my own trumpet, I have become a bit of a pioneer in terms of a surgeon who provides bedside diagnostics. I am teaching more on the subject and encouraging colleagues at a national level to take it up.”

League of Friends chairwoman Val Brundle said: “We helped to buy the original scanner seven years ago but this model has better data transfer facilities and a USB port so pictures can be downloaded to help with teaching and presentations.

"Having a second machine enables training of registrars and invaluable in providing rapid diagnostics.”