The computer kept me late

BY ILYA GRIDNEFF LONG hours at the office could become a thing of the past if we got rid of computers, a new report reveals. Crashes, print jams and slow-running terminals mean the average employee wastes 48 minutes every day. Added to the time spent in pointless meetings, handling unnecessary phone calls and dealing with annoying colleagues, it can mean up to three hours a day being wasted. The findings come from a survey which showed that, rather than helping us, new technologies make office life an ordeal. Computers, for some, mean having to deal with countless annoying e-mails, often sent to their home PCs. The drive towards the paperless office also means workers constantly having to update their skills as they try to conquer new software. The mobile phone, too, is fuelling the 24-hour working culture as many staff say they have to take calls outside normal hours, a survey of 1,100 office workers by payment service BACS found. Michael Chambers, of BACS, said: 'No office can ever be 100 per cent efficient but it's ironic that so much time is wasted on devices designed to streamline proceses." Doctors can have a look through you BY OLIVER STALLWOOD THEY could be stills from a horror film but these images are from a stateof-the-art scanner which really can expose the inner you. The £500,000 machine is the only one of its kind in Britain and can take up to 64 simultaneous pictures to build up extraordinary 3D images of the human body. It starts with an image that sees through the first layer of skin. Then it strips away the flesh, tissue, muscles, nerves and blood vessels. All that is left after it has penetrated all the layers is an image of the bones. It is so accurate it can detect a tiny build-up of calcium inside an artery. The Toshiba Aquilion 64 Multislice CT scanner may not be the most snappily named piece of technology but it has been hailed as a major step forward in diagnosis. Patients spend just five minutes on it against up to 15 minutes on existing CT scanners. It causes less discomfort as people have to hold their breath for much shorter periods during scans. Conquest Hospital in Hastings is the first place in the country to install one although it is hoped more will follow. Doctors hope it will spot more ailments than existing scanners. Its hi-tech wizardry will also mean that some intrusive examinations will be no longer necessary. Chris Brandt, one of the hospital's radiographers, said: 'There are massive improvements for patients. It gives a much more accurate picture of what is going on inside the body.' [Metro Apr25,2005]