The London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH) has acquired three new Siemens Healthineers CT scanners across its three primary sites.
LNWH is a teaching and district general hospital trust that operates from three main sites: Ealing Hospital, Central Middlesex Hospital, and Northwick Park Hospital.
As one of the largest integrated healthcare trusts in the country, its radiology department has 320 members of staff.
For some time, one of the two scanners at Ealing Hospital had been decommissioned and needed to be replaced.
Tanuja Khiroya, the trust’s radiology general manager, said: “Only having one functional CT scanner at the hospital presented a potential risk as Ealing is a busy general hospital with a bustling A&E as well. If the only functional scanner were to suffer any issues the workload would need to transfer to Northwick Park. This would create a serious strain on resources on the acute site at Northwick Park.”
In addition to replacing the scanner at Ealing, the trust made a case for replacing two of the older scanners still in operation at its other two sites.
The scanner at Central Middlesex Hospital, for example, was nearly 10 years old and, while still fully functional, upgrading to newer technology would improve efficiency and diagnosis.
During the clinical evaluations process, the three lead CT radiographers evaluated a range of equipment and agreed that Siemens Healthineers offered the best-in-class technology and price for their requirements.
“The team liked the platform resolution; it was user-friendly and in terms of functionality scored better than competitors”, said Khiroya.
The Trust worked with the NHS supply chain to access a competitive finance solution which made acquiring the technology financially sustainable, based on a seven-year financing term, and through this bench-marking process, Siemens Financial Services (SFS) was able to provide a cost-effective funding solution.
The first scanner was installed at Ealing in September and although the platform was new for some of the team, cross-site working in the radiology department has meant that staff from Central Middlesex and Northwick Park have been able to familiarise themselves with the interface ahead of installation at the latter two sites in February.
Penny Pinnock, sales manager for public sector and healthcare finance at SFS, said: “We were able to offer the best value for the equipment because our specialist team understands the significance these scanners will have in terms of increasing diagnostic efficiency and enhancing treatment.”