Britain's creaking national health service has long been criticised for being decades behind our American counterparts, but doctors at West Middlesex hospital have hailed the new age of digital technology and the Computed Tomography (CT) Scans that is helping to bring the hospital up to speed.

The new equipment is revolutionising the way doctors collect, store and analyse information.

Doctor Tom Naunton-Morgan, head of clinical imaging explained how the digital advancements have helped. He said: "The whole process before was incredibly time consuming. An x-ray report would take nearly two weeks whereas this process is instant. And we don't have endless piles of x-rays taking up valuable space.

"The total cost for all the technology in clinical imaging was around £5 million, but we still need more so if anyone feels like donating a few hundred thousand it would be much appreciated."

Most people don't get the opportunity to explore the back corridors of a major hospital and they certainly don't get to visit nerve centres like the digital imaging suite.

I was lucky enough to do both and was very impressed with what I saw, with images so clear staff can easily spot everything from a hairline fracture to blood clots.

Doctors can monitor the blood flow through vessels and into organs or diagnose conditions which require treatment, and target cancerous tumours or see where to place the instruments and devices.

Anyone that has been unfortunate enough to need an x-ray with the old system will be familiar with the long process and the lack of detail on the images. To the untrained eye, these e-rays look like fuzzy blobs.

Most medical centres still rely on film to obtain, display, and store their radiographic x-rays. This is not only inefficient, but also requires processing chemicals, taking up valuable storage space, and even more valuable to hospital staff - time.

Not only is this new system incredibly accurate, but it's far more practical too.

The facilities have been up and running since May 2003, and CT scans have gone up 150 per cent since then, but that also means the hospital has seen a vast increase in workload.

Dr Naunton-Morgan continued: "The new technology allows us to make audio notes on the system using a voice recognition device similar to a dictaphone. So all these notes go along with the images making access to patient information much quicker.

"It means we have access at the click of a button and it also makes communication between departments far easier. We can also relay this information to GPs with ease."

As with any computer technology, there is always the issue of computers crashing or picking up viruses but reduces the risk of losing files and transporting them.

Dr Naunton-Morgan added: "We use a set of bar codes to make sure the correct details are accessed, and it's included on all the patients' records. It also means we can easily refer to all previous treatments too.

"It saves me and my assistant a great deal of time typing up our notes too. The voice recognition system isn't foolproof though, so we still need to proof read and double check for any mistakes, but it does make our life and the patients' lives a lot better."