The equipment reconfiguration across Asteral’s multiLIFE service at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) is underway, with the delivery and installation of seven out of 11 new CT and MR scanners over an 11-month period.
The largest single installation of CT and MR machines for an NHS trust, the equipment is being provided as part of a long-standing managed equipment service contract.
It began with the delivery of a Toshiba Aquilion CXL Slice CT scanner in March and has continued over the past seven months with the most recent delivery of a Siemens Definition Flash Dual Source CT in August and a GE Optima MR planned for October.
The four remaining MR and CT scanners from GE and Toshiba will be delivered between now and February 2014, including the Toshiba Aquilion One due for installation at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
Upon completion of the project UHL will have acquired a total of six CT and five MR scanners from a range of manufacturers. It will also take delivery of 11 injectors supplied by Bayer; five Medrad Spectris Solaris MR injection systems and six Medrad Stellant D Dual Syringe CT injection systems with new Certegra Workstations.
This would enable the trust to gain access to Certegra CT Contrast Dose Management in the future. The informatics platform will support the radiology departments in driving protocol standardisation and easily accessible audit data.
Andy Jones, general manager for implementation and technology at Asteral, said: “We have worked closely with UHL over many months to ensure we best meet their specific clinical requirements for the procurement and installation of new equipment. It’s great to now see the outcome of those plans with the ongoing implementation process. On completion of the project UHL’s renewed and enhanced radiology department can ensure it continues to deliver optimum levels of patient care.”