Managed service and maintenance provider, Althea, has completed a £4 m refurbishment and replacement project at Whittington Health NHS Trust’s Imaging Department on the third floor of the Whittington Hospital in north London.
The new diagnostic imaging equipment, which was installed over a two-year period, includes 14 ultrasounds, a CT scanner, a fluoroscopy system, five digital X-ray rooms two mobile X-ray machines, 1 digital dental X-ray, and a mammography unit. Althea sourced the equipment from a number of manufacturers, including GE, Canon, Samsung, Siemens, Hologic, and Planmeca.
The hospital’s Nuclear Medicine Department has been equipped with a SPECT-CT scanner that allows detection of the organ’s functional information using the SPECT camera and precise localisation of relevant areas using the CT scanner. The amalgamation of these two diagnostic tools provides resulting to higher confidence in detecting, localising, and quantifying the degree of pathologic findings.
The five new Samsung digital X-ray rooms and two mobile systems – all with wireless imaging detectors – are designed to raise efficiency, and are equipped with ‘state-of-the-art ‘technologies such as S-Detector, S-Vue & S-Align, which Althea says ‘provides outstanding image quality to enhance patient diagnosis’. Also newly installed is a Hologic 3Dimensions mammography unit which Althea says ‘provides superior resolution diagnostic breast imaging’ and High Definition Tomosynthesis, facilitating more accurate diagnosis of smaller breast lesions particularly in dense breast tissue. The Affirm Biopsy package allows biopsies to be performed under tomography guidance, enabling faster and more accurate sampling of micro-calcifications and wire localisation placement.
Althea’s specialist team ensures that ongoing maintenance and training programmes are closely managed, minimising equipment downtime and promoting the use of these new digital technologies to maximum effect.
David Rolfe, UK&I CEO at Althea, said: “We have been working with the Trust since 2005, and this is the second time we have completed a refurbishment and replacement project within the Imaging Department. From day one we have worked closely to evaluate the Trust’s radiography needs and develop a sustainable long-term equipment replacement programme. The partnership guarantees that the Trust’s equipment will be maintained throughout the lifetime of the contract.”
The photo shows the new Siemens Definition Edge 128 Slice CT scanner.
