Work has started to accommodate a hi-tech MRI scanner at Yeovil District Hospital's x-ray department. Hospital bosses have assured patients work and appointments will go on as normal, although slight disruptions are likely.
The £600,000 scanner was allocated to the East Somerset NHS Trust last year following a successful bid for lottery money through The New Opportunities Fund. If everything goes according to plan, installation work will be completed in October.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanners use radio frequency pulses and a magnetic field to differentiate tissues within the human body.
A hospital spokesperson explained that the scanners can be used to aid the diagnosis of stroke and cancer and assess the effectiveness of treatments given.
While particularly aimed at patients suffering from cancer, heart disease and stroke, the new scanner will benefit many other patients too - like those needing head or bone scans, for example.
The new scanner will be six times more powerful than the one it replaces, providing faster and much more detailed results.
Superintendent radiographer Jenny Waller said: "We are delighted to be gearing up to receive this fantastic new equipment which will be of such great benefit to patients.
"Our working timetables will not be affected, but obviously some areas of the department will be slightly disrupted as changes are made and building works start to prepare for the new scanner.
"Patients are very interested in the development, especially following the huge success of the local scanner appeal, called YES, which raised over £1.7 million for our very first CT scanner in the 1980s.
"Now we are using MRI as well as CT scanning, and services are improving all the time, so that patients can be treated locally and don't have to travel to Bristol, for example."
* Last year the hospital carried out 2,220 MRI scans.