The cost of MRI: changes in costs 1989-1996

A study was conducted to provide an up-to-date analysis of the costs associated with operating an MRI facility in a mainstream National Health Service (NHS) setting. This paper presents an analysis of the costs associated with the acquisition and operation of an MRI scanner installed at the Walsgrave NHS Trust in Coventry in 1988. Costs arising immediately after the introduction of the MRI facility in 1988 are compared with the costs arising towards the end of the scanner's useful life during the 1995/96 financial year. The findings suggest that although the nominal total costs of MRI have increased marginally, from pound 403,223 to pound 434,037 (an increase of pound 30,814), the increase in total costs is below the rate of inflation, and the nominal average costs of MRI have fallen from pound 179.20 to pound 115.77 over the period.