A donation of around £80,000 has helped fund the cost of two state of the art ultrasound machines to help critically ill patients at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW).

A combined donation from both the Maidstone Hospital League of Friends and Tunbridge Wells Hospital League of Friends has financed the new equipment which is estimated to benefit up to 1000 patients a year across MTW’s main sites.

The new technology arrived at the Trust back in May, with Tunbridge Wells Hospital League of Friends Chairman, Gary Purdy, having the opportunity to watch a short demonstration of the machinery on Friday 20 September.

The machines will be used in the Intensive Therapy Units (ICU) on both sites and are used to scan hearts, lungs, abdomens and blood vessels within the body.

The system also enables specialists to diagnose causes of heart failure, infections deep within the body and allows earlier diagnosis and treatment of a whole array conditions affecting patients.

Tunbridge Wells Hospital League of Friends Chairman, Gary Purdy, said: “We are all volunteers at the League of Friends, we all give our time and to be able to give a piece of equipment like this to the hospital and to see the ground-breaking work it is doing is very rewarding for us.

“We only have a limited amount of money we can spend, so we do try to spend the money where we can make the most impact and that is certainly the case with this ultrasound machine.”