A GP called for the NHS bosses who presided over a political wrangle, which has kept a £2.5million scanner mothballed for 18 months, to be sacked.

Dr Marimuthu Velmurugan, from the Westborough Road surgery, Westcliff, said it was scandalous the hi-tech PET-CT scanner has been idle in Southend Hospital since November 2014, as medics argued it should be sited in Basildon Hospital.

He is fully backing the Echo’s campaign launched yesterday.

We are demanding the squabbling stops and the life-saving equipment is put to use – straight away.

Meanwhile, Dr Velmurugan criticised the NHS England Essex Success Regime, which is trying to forge closer working and sharing of services between the two hospitals.

He said: “My view on this scandalous state of affairs is that the Success Regime should be renamed the Disaster Regime.

“The managers behind this delay should be identified and sacked.

“When GPs can’t get scans and this machine is sitting there doing nothing for years, really someone should be sacked.”

Dr Velmurugan added: “I think the scanner should be in Southend Hospital, where it has been all this time. It shouldn’t be moved and they should get it up and running without more delays.”

A row broke out after councillors and clinicians in Thurrock argued the equipment should be based at Basildon Hospital, so it is in the middle of south Essex.

Southend councillor Kevin Robinson, who works in the health care service as a dementia nurse, also called for the scanner to be put to use.

He said: “I think this vital piece of equipment should stay in Southend. Working in the health sector, I think the ideas of the scanner being left unused is terrible.”

SOUTHEND Hospital has urged patients to take part in the consultation on where the scanner should be installed.

Dr Paul Cervi, the hospital’s clinical director for diagnostic and therapeutic services, which include cancer and radiology, said: “Whilst as clinicians we find this process frustrating, we recognise that NHS England needs to be assured that the final decision is the right one for the population of south Essex as a whole.”

He believes the scanner should be located at the cancer centre at Southend.

He added: “We already provide radiotherapy for the whole of the south Essex population at Southend.

“This is in line with the Royal College of Radiologists’ recommendations to co-locate PET-CT and radiotherapy services on one site. We would urge residents to have their say as part of the public consultation.”