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Alliance Medical, the leading independent provider of imaging services in Europe, stepped in over the weekend to provide urgent replacement scanners after Friday’s fire at Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

The blaze, which broke out in the building housing the hospital’s MRI scanner, was later tackled by 100 firefighters. Although the A&E department had to close on Friday, Alliance Medical worked in conjunction with hospital staff over the weekend to bring replacement mobile MRI and CT scanners to the hospital and make sure their scanning services could be up and running at the earliest possible opportunity.

Commenting on the incident, Diane Gray, Associate Director at Alliance Medical, said: “We are delighted that Alliance Medical was able to step in and support the hospital. Our team worked tirelessly over the weekend to bring in our replacement scanners and train the hospital staff. Working together with the Trust, we hope patients will experience as seamless a service as possible.”

Meanwhile, Alex Whitfield, Chief Operating Officer of Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "We are very grateful to Alliance Medical for their swift action in coming to our assistance during this challenging situation. There was a staff briefing today to make sure they are familiar with the new units and we hope to be fully operational by late this evening. We have not had to cancel any surgery as a result of the fire."

As well as operating static sites across the UK, Alliance Medical also operates a fleet of mobile scanners and it was two of these which were taken to Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital on Saturday.

For further details, please contact Lucy Meade on 020 7092 3387 or alliancemedicalteam@hanovercomms

See the BBC News coverage