Imaging staff at Walsall Manor Hospital will be at the heart of its new c£40m Urgent and Emergency Care Centre.

Just over 100 staff in Imaging process between 16,000 and 18,500 scans a month and 200,000 scans a year for patients at Walsall Manor Hospital.

The department currently has two CT scanners, five x-ray rooms and 10 ultrasound rooms, and when the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre opens, this will eventually increase to seven x-ray rooms, 11 ultrasound rooms and three CT scanners.

Professional Lead for Ultrasound Hayley Whitehouse said: “Imaging is really excited because we’re going to be part of the new build, and we feel there’s going to be some excellent new pathways we can explore for patients.

“We’ve got new x-ray rooms as part of phase one of the project and we will be having an additional x-ray room, CT scanner and Ultrasound room in the second phase, so we will be really pleased to eventually have our own self-sufficient imaging department within this build.

“Imaging is an integral part of a patient’s journey and can mean the difference between an inpatient stay or being discharged.

“The imaging department is physically spread over many areas in the hospital, however in the new building we will feel more at the heart of things.

“It will give us a chance to work with other teams more closely than perhaps we do now, which will help provide better patient care and cement relationships with other teams.

“This new build has given us a new opportunity to explore new pathways that are best practice to ultimately provide first-class patient care.”