Friends donate new £8,500 endoscope to Daventry hospital clinic

The Friends of Danetre Hospital donated a new video naso-endoscope to the hospital, to be used in clinics run by head and neck consultant surgeon Phillip Ameerally.

The new scope represents a step forward in patient care because it allows images of people’s throat and nose to be recorded, stored and reviewed, as well as allowing patients to see the live images themselves if they wish.

Mr Ameerally said: “These scopes are used to check people’s nose and throat. They are key in diagnosing neck or throat cancer, and they can be used for all manner of other purposes, like checking how the soft palate moves in people with a cleft. It also allows us to use it to train other doctors as well.

“We had one but it was not a video scope. You had to look down it, you could not record the images and you could not show the patient them – not that all patients want to see down their own throat! But that scope was not always here, so if we needed it we sometimes had to keep ask patients to come back at a later date, or send them to Northampton General, which isn’t ideal as most people want to just know what the cause of a problem is straight away.”

The donation of the £8,500 scope was made by the Friends of Danetre Hospital – the group set up to provide extra items for patients and staff that may not be available or would take a long time to get via the NHS.

The Friends receive donations through fundraising events and by former patients of Danetre and their families who are often grateful for the extra touches provided by the hospital through the hard work of the staff and the donations of the friends.

However, in 2017 the charity will be launching a dedicated fundraising drive and is asking for people interested in supporting it to get in touch with their chairman Chris Long via [email protected].