"MRI scan at Newark hospital"

After seeing an ENT specialist at Kings Mill hospital for chronic inner ear pain, I was referred for an MRI scan. An appointment was made for me at Newark hospital - much further away from where I live than Kings Mill, so I assumed there were no MRI facilities at Kings Mill. 

After a long journey and a long wait as appointments were nearly 30 minutes behind schedule, it was only when I got to the scanner unit that I realised that the scanner itself was too small to accommodate plus-size bodies- a standard MRI scanner is apparently just 60cm in diameter. I got in as far as my elbows before realising that the scanner was too tight.

The technicians then told me that they could book me in for an MRI at Kings Mill, which has a bigger scanner. They also said they'd seen another patient that day who'd had the same issue, and there was someone else in the waiting room, due in after me, who was bigger than me and would likely have found the machine too tight as well.

The specialist at Kings Mill saw me in person - I'm obviously not a slim person, so either the specialist was not aware of the equipment specs at Newark, or it didn't occur to them that someone my size might have difficulties, or whoever in admin booked the appointment didn't know that this might be an issue. But making a 6 hour round trip on public transport, only to learn that (a) the equipment was unusable for me, and (b) there was a scanner available much closer to home, was infuriating.

When facilities are not designed to accommodate fat bodies, and when staff do not give consideration to the needs of bigger people, then those people cannot access the same standard of healthcare that slim people get- this is literally systemic fatphobia.