Mobile CT scanner cuts waiting times
HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE is using a mobile CT Scanner to help meet increasing demand.
In response to the demands for complex imagery, HSC has made a series of changes to bring waiting times down and improve the radiology service over the last year.
As part of this work it has secured the use of a mobile CT scanner, which was in action over the weekend and will be brought to the island for short periods at a cost of about £25,000 a time when necessary.
It scanned around 70 cases over three days.
CT scanners are used around the clock to allow HSC and MSG clinical staff to view anatomy and pathology throughout the body and are critically important, particularly for trauma and oncology imaging.
The hospital’s existing CT scanner, which can undertake this work but at a much slower speed than the mobile unit, will be replaced in August at a cost of around £1.1m., providing Guernsey with the latest generation of technology to support the Radiology Department.
PEH radiology manager Alastair Richards said the mobile CT unit provides an excellent, flexible resource for the provision of care to patients.
‘As best practice changes, and demand increases for our services, the significant programme of investment being made to upgrade our permanent scanning equipment will deliver our professionals excellent resources to deliver the next generation of care we want to provide to our community,’ he said.
Increasing demand had led to growing waiting times for some MRI and ultrasound examinations, which have now been significantly reduced with the majority of patients for these examinations now being scanned within three weeks of being referred by the doctor.
The wait for cardiac CT had also grown with demand having increased six-fold in the past year owing to recent changes in best practice guidance.
The increased wait for these examinations is reflected across the UK, where the infrastructure is struggling to handle the pressure, since CT has been recommended as the examination of choice for many patients with suspected coronary artery disease.
HSC medical director Peter Rabey said: ‘Demand for complex scanning continues to increase and I am particularly pleased that the PEH will have the very latest technology available within its Radiology Department this summer to deliver the standard of care our public rightly expect.
‘Waiting times for coronary artery disease will be shorter through the use of the mobile unit and scans can be delivered faster and more efficiently through the use of our incoming permanent replacement.’
