Patients in north Oxfordshire are being saved from making journeys to Oxford for vital tests, by stepping on to a juggernaut instead.

The lorry is a mobile magnetic resonance imaging unit and visits The Horton, Banbury, once a month to scan 20 to 25 people.

Set up using £45,000 funding, and in co-operation with staff at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, in Headington, Oxford, it is being used to examine patients with bone or muscular problems.

Many have trouble with their hips, knees, back or shoulders, and find it difficult or painful to travel too far for treatment.

Consultant radiologist Dr Horace D'Costa said: "This is a local service. If it wasn't here people would have to travel to Oxford for their imaging. "Can you imagine a person with a bad hip or back getting in a car and travelling 25 miles to Oxford, then finding a parking space at the NOC, having the scan and then driving home?

"Once a month may seem a bit paltry, but we would like to extend the service to twice a month at first, then more.

"I would also like to help people with other problems."

Dr D'Costa believes the service will attract staff to the Horton, which is suffering from a shortage of radiologists and radiographers.

He said: "Staff can pick and choose. They come to the Horton and see we haven't an MRI scanner and go elsewhere."

The service is provided by Banbury-based MRI firm Alliance Medical. The 42ft-long truck has a full-size MRI scanner on board.