Plans to extend the Bermuda Healthcare Services building to house a new MRI machine have been approved by the Development Applications Board.

Medical Director Dr. Ewart Brown said the building, on The Lane in Paget, will be extended about ten or 12 feet to accommodate the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) but the construction will not disrupt medical services.

The wing of that part of the building has been vacant and used to store medical records.

Dr. Brown said he had been waiting for planning approval and hoped to start construction by the beginning of next week.

?The machine should arrive at the beginning of May and it has to be calibrated so it should be ready for the first scan by late May.?

The machine, Dr. Brown explained, is an open model rather than a closed model.

?The unit is an open model and we really think this will be a service to many Bermudians who are claustrophobic or obese because in both of those instances the closed unit can be very uncomfortable,? Dr. Brown said.

The machine is part of a joint venture between the Bermuda Healthcare Services and the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts.

Dr. Brown added that a visiting consultant from the Lahey Clinic would be joining the practice shortly to allow Bermudians to speak with a consultant without having to leave the Island.