FOOTBALLER turned broadcaster Eric Gates has launched a £750,000 medical scanner which is almost doubling the number of patients screened at Bishop Auckland General Hospital.

The former England, Sunderland and Ipswich star, who is now one of Century Radio's Three Legends, performed the opening ceremony yesterday.

The open magnet magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner is the first of its kind in the UK.

It is a joint venture between Lodestone Patient Care and County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Trust.

The scanner has been used since the hospital opened in June and replaces a fortnightly visiting service.

Patients are checked under an open canopy instead of passing through a tube, making it suitable for claustrophobic and very large people as well as young children.

Magnetic resonance imaging is a diagnostic technique which produces detailed cross-sectional images of the body without the potential risks associated with conventional x-rays.

It is used in the diagnosis of neurological disease of the head and spine, as well as orthopaedic conditions such as back pain.

The hospital also has a computerised axial tomography (CAT) scanner, which was transferred from the original building into the £67m new development.