League of Friends donates £36,000 for new machine at Louth hospital

The League of Friends saved for over a year to purchase the machine following a request from Dr Babu from United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT).

This amount included a donation of £822 in memory of former League of Friends president, Mrs Amelia Kelly, who died two years ago.

Glen Kelsey, clinical lead for endoscopy, explained to League of Friends volunteers how important the new ‘Scope Guide’ machine will be for the department .

He said: “It looks very simple but actually its a really good piece of equipment.

“The actual camera, a long tube with metal coils inside, is picked up by the machine using magnetics and projects a three-dimensional model on to a screen, showing us how the camera is sitting in the patient at that time.

“It’s very useful for us as it shows us exactly where the camera is going. It’s also made our ability to scope a little bit quicker as well.

“It is a fantastic bit of kit and it improves patient satisfaction no end.

“In the long run, it also helps to improve patient concordance and compliance during the procedure, so completions for the tests are greatly improved.”

Nikki Woodcock, head of endoscopy, added: “Louth was the only one of the four hospital sites (in the ULHT) that isn’t a training area and now we have got this bit of kit.

“Our Joint Advisory Group (JAG) has said that we needed this equipment if we wanted to do training here.”

Ms Woodcock and Sister, Mandy Loveley, gave a 
‘massive thank you’ to the League of Friends for their donation, and said it would have taken a long time to save up for the ScopeGuide 
machine without their help.