Rod Stewart backs striking doctors and wants to pay for more hospital scans

Sir Rod Stewart said he supports the striking NHS staff and wants to pay for more MRI scans across the country to help cut waiting lists but described it as 'banging your head against a brick wall'.

In February, the singer-songwriter appeared at a mobile MRI scanning unit outside his local hospital Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, and paid for a day of scans.

It came a month after he called a live phone-in segment on Sky News and offered to pay for people to have hospital scans, having just returned from having a scan himself.

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Sir Rod has said he would like to pay for more scans elsewhere too but is struggling to get a response.

He told the PA news agency: "I said when I did Sky TV that I want to try and do them all over the country. I’m not going to show up and be photographed, I just wanted to do it.

"It’s like banging your head against a brick wall. I can’t get any response. People are crying out for MRIs, I’m willing to pay for them, 30 or 40 in a few hours, and I can’t get anybody to do it for me."

He added: "I want to keep it going. I don’t want it to look like it was a publicity stunt.

"I didn’t have an album coming out or anything … I wanted the people to know I was doing it, but now I want it to go on and on and on and I’m not getting any response."

Sir Rod also spoke about the junior doctors’ strikes, calling NHS staff 'absolutely right'.

"I’m well on their side. I was absolutely with them, they come before anything," he told PA.

Sir Rod, who has had six number one hits in the UK charts including Baby Jane and Maggie May, will perform this summer in the UK with support act Boy George and Culture Club.

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