Rod Stewart visited his local NHS hospital on Friday and paid for a day of scans for patients to help reduce waiting lists.
The singer-songwriter, 78, said he wanted to “prove I’m not all mouth and trousers” and added he would like to pay for scans elsewhere in the UK.
Stewart’s donation covered a day of scans for patients at Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow, Essex, which were carried out at private healthcare firm InHealth’s mobile MRI scanning unit.
Stephanie Lawton, chief operating officer at the hospital, said his move would help reduce their waiting list by about 10%, or about 20 patients.
Last month, Stewart called a live phone-in segment on Sky News and offered to pay for people to have hospital scans, describing it as “ridiculous” that people were having to wait long periods to get essential scans and treatment. Stewart has previously been a Conservative supporter but during the show, he said “the government should stand down now and give the Labour party a go”.
Explaining on Friday how the philanthropic gesture came about, Stewart said: “I had just come from my scan in a private clinic near Harley Street.
“I walked in and said, ‘I’m terribly sorry, I’m half an hour late.’ They said, ‘don’t worry, there’s hardly anybody in here today.’
“There were eight people with hardly anything to do. Then I thought this is a terrible injustice, so here we are.”
The singer said he would like to pay for scans elsewhere.
“If this is a big success, which I think it will be, I’d like to do it in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and just keep it going, and hope some other people follow me.
“Because I want to prove I’m not all mouth and trousers and that’s why I’m here to prove that I followed through with it, OK folks.”
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He added: “There must be enough money in the coffers to pay up for these nurses – only two years ago we were clapping and now … Bless them, they work so hard, salt of the earth.”
Pressed on the state of the NHS, the pop star said: “We’ve got to sort this out, really. We’re in dire straits.
“If I am going to get political, I think we should send the Ukrainians F-16s. It’s up to you, prime minister.”
Lawton added: “Rod’s a local resident, we’re his local hospital, we’re really delighted to be working with him and his team for the benefit of patients and doing everything we can to reduce the waiting lists.”