Stamford and Rutland Hospital receives money for eye injection chair from Looker Energy Ltd

People with eye conditions will be able to attend appointments closer to home thanks to a donation of new equipment.

An eye injection chair has been delivered to Stamford and Rutland Hospital and is expected to be used by 400 patients each year.

It cost £17,000 and was paid for with a donation from Looker Energy Ltd.

The company’s owners were keen to support the hospital trust after director Ann Looker was treated at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon.

She said: “We really wanted to give something back to the community and our hospital trust seemed the obvious choice, coupled with the fact that I have received care as a patient.

“It has been great to see the chair which has been purchased and is ready to receive its first patients.”

The company donated £25,000 in total and the remaining money will be spent on future projects in the department. A further £1,000 raised at a military band concert at Stamford Endowed Schools will be spent on a new opthalmic microscope.

Service manager for opthalmology, Nicola McNamee, said: “Our huge thanks go to Dr and Mrs Looker for their generous donation and we can assure them that this specialist chair will help more local patients to be treated quickly and closer to home.

“We anticipate seeing around 400 patients a year, many of whom may otherwise have had to go another hospital within the trust.”