New scanning clinical service to benefit more patients

More local patients are benefiting from a new clinical service at CUH offering scanning for cancer and other conditions.

 

We are already seeing evidence of patients choosing to come to CUH Addenbrooke’s which is proof of its success and our quality of service.


CUH is now able to provide scanning services for patients using its purpose-built, static scanner, which replaces a mobile service that was on site.   

Under the terms of a new national PET-CT contract with Alliance Medical, the Trust is able perform scans on an additional 2,000 patients a year.

A PET-CT scan is a vital diagnostic tool in detecting cancer as well as other conditions.  It combines the use of X-rays to take pictures of the structures of the body with a short-lived radioactive drug, which shows up areas of the body where the cells are more active than normal. The combined images produce a detailed picture of the internal anatomy and function, which allow clinicians to plan any treatment required more accurately.

Helen Rose, from CUH’s nuclear medicine division, said: “PET-CT scans are useful to clinicians in helping to diagnose patients and recommend treatments. This new clinical service means we can provide a better local service for our patients and for others who come from Cambridgeshire and beyond, to be treated at a leading cancer centre with some of the best outcomes nationally and internationally.

“Our static PET-CT scanner offers higher quality images than the old mobile unit and we benefit from all the facilities associated with a purpose-built department located in a major university teaching hospital. This is better for patients, providing a faster and more integrated service in a more pleasant environment.”

CUH worked with Alliance Medical to provide the new service under an agreement between a NHS England and a collaborative network, led by Alliance Medical.   

Previously InHealth had provided the service, utilising their visiting mobile scanners, Since August 2015 the Trust has been able to negotiate with the new provider, Alliance Medical, that CUH can use its existing static scanner for all new patients.

Helen added: “We are already seeing evidence of patients choosing to come to CUH Addenbrooke’s which is proof of its success and our quality of service.”

Image: Simon Curtis from Peterborough is one of the patients benefiting from a new scanning clinical service at CUH. The 44-year-old was diagnosed with a rare cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in April. He has had five rounds of chemotherapy and was being scanned to see if the tumour has shrunk. Here he is about to be injected with a short-lived radioactive drug which shows up areas of the body where the cells are more active than normal.


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