A cool head ensures smooth MRI delivery

Here, Andy Downton, co-owner and MD of the company’s logistics provider, Downton, describes the critical strategic planning and estates expertise fundamental to the success of this “unique service

 The Cobalt Unit Appeal Fund is characterised not only by unbridled success as a fund-raising body, but equally by a remarkable devotion to the pursuit and achievement of technological innovations for the healthcare sector. Cobalt was formed in 1964 to raise money for a new oncology centre in Cheltenham. The Cobalt Unit (now Cheltenham Oncology Centre) was completed in 1966, funded by the charity’s fund-raising work. In a role that went far beyond that of a traditional fundraising organisation, Cobalt went on to support the development of breast cancer screening services in Gloucestershire, and, working in partnership with the NHS, became the driving force behind the UK’s leading cancer screening services. Today, Cobalt is best known in the healthcare sector for its work providing state-of-the-art mobile MRI facilities to hospitals across the South West and Wales, from Glamorgan to Gloucester, and from Stourbridge to Plymouth. Travelling to hospitals countrywide, the mobile units were, for many hospitals, the only MRI facility at their disposal and, as such, represented a remarkable opportunity to increase the standard of care for patients. Deployed for short periods whenever, and wherever, they were needed, Cobalt’s units were the lifeblood of many hospital’s cancer diagnostic services, allowing them to undertake as many as 30 diagnostic procedures in 10 hours – a throughput otherwise impossible without sending patients to a distant hospital.

A history of ‘firsts’