Sir Rod Stewart has reduced a hospital’s waiting list by 10 per cent after paying for a mobile scanning unit for a day.

The singer-songwriter last month 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 private scan himself.

He committed to paying for other patients’ scans to speed up their diagnosis and treatment.

The 78-year-old arrived at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, in a white Rolls-Royce, where he had paid for the cost of a mobile scanning unit.

He said he was “here not to talk about politics, please, because otherwise it overshadows what we’re trying to do”.

If the day was a “big success” he committed to paying for further units in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester, he said, adding that he hoped “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.”

Stephanie Lawton, chief operating officer at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, said Sir Rod paid for a day of scans at the hospital which would help reduce their waiting list for scans by around 10 per cent, or around 20 patients.

More than 1.5 million people were waiting for a diagnostic test in England as of December, according to NHS figures, 481,924 were waiting longer than six weeks.

“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,” Ms Lawton said.

She added: “It would be fantastic if he would continue to work with us.

“We’ve got a charity, he would be a massive supporter for the organisation. We would be delighted if he wanted to continue the links.”

'We're in dire straits'

Asked about the current NHS strikes Sir Rod said: “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.”

Despite claiming he didn’t want to talk politics, he added: “If I am going to get political, I think we should send the Ukrainians F-16s.

“It’s up to you, Prime Minister.

“I’ve been supporting them for years, Ukrainians.

“On stage I have the flag and I wear a blue and yellow suit and do a song and dedicate it to them. I feel very strongly about it. If the Ukrainians lose it’s the end of civilisation as we know it, it's all over.”