NHS estates team to head to old fish market to make space for MRI scanner

NHS Shetland is set to move one of its departments to part of the old Lerwick fish market building to make space at the Gilbert Bain Hospital for the future installation of the long-awaited MRI scanner.

The health board said its estates team will move there from the hospital in due course.

Lawson Bisset, head of estates, facilities and medical physics, added: “The move is part of a plan to make space on the Gilbert Bain Hospital site in order to allow the MRI scanner to be installed in the future.”

The new Lerwick fish market, at Mair’s Quay, opened in 2020.

The old one, located near to the Bressay ferry terminal, currently plays host to a factory for mussel company Seaspray Shetland, but there is plenty of leftover space.

Meanwhile Shetland’s first MRI scanner is expected to be operational next year.

A fundraising target for the scanner was set at £1.65 million, with this figure being reached in 2020.

At the moment people in Shetland needing an MRI scan have to travel to Aberdeen. 

More than 600 patients from Shetland are said to travel south to have an MRI scan each year.

MRI scanners can diagnose cancer, strokes, heart conditions and many other conditions and having one in Lerwick would complement the existing CT scanner, which uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed images of the inside of the body.