UHDB patients already benefiting from brand new mobile MRI scanning unit at QHB
A mobile MRI scanning unit has been set up at Queen’s Hospital Burton to ensure our patients continue to receive the best care possible – while new state-of-the-art scanners are installed across UHDB.
Two brand new MRI scanners will replace the existing ones at Queen’s Hospital Burton and London Road Community Hospital over the coming months, as part of an exciting, staggered £2.5m upgrade within the Trust’s Imaging department.
It is expected that the installation process on each site will take three to four months to complete, starting at Queen’s first and then at London Road, with the mobile unit allowing the Trust to continue to provide this valuable service to patients while works take place in the meantime.
The new permanent scanners will be able to offer improved scan image quality, using advanced technology, with the capabilities to allow for patients to be scanned on site for complex conditions that would have previously had to go elsewhere.
Patients will also be able to benefit from the Philips wide bore scanners having much more space inside them than the existing scanners, which will help improve the patients’ experience during the scan by making them feel more comfortable and less claustrophobic.
Dave Tipper, General Manager for Imaging at UHDB, said: “We are delighted to have now begun this exciting project, which will ultimately lead to more of our patients being granted access to some of the best MRI technology available anywhere. Having these state-of-the-art scanners at Queen’s Hospital Burton and London Road Community Hospital will make a huge difference to our patients, with these advancements enabling us to scan patients we would’ve been unable to scan on site before. As well as supporting complex scanning and allowing enhanced scan image quality, these scanners will importantly also help us to improve our patients’ journey through hospital, so we are really pleased that we will one day be able to offer this service to our communities.”
UHDB’s mobile MRI scanning unit is currently based at Queen’s Hospital Burton, outside the x-ray department, and has this week begun providing this invaluable service to our very first patients.
One of these patients, Sophie Martin, 20, from Burntwood, said: “This was my first MRI scan and it was very efficient. I would not have known that I was on the back of a van and I didn’t feel enclosed at all.”
Having this mobile facility available will allow the Trust to continue to manage the demand of patients who need an MRI scan while the existing scanners are replaced, by enabling around 25 scans to take place each day than would have otherwise been possible on site.
Following the installation of the permanent scanners, the mobile unit will then be moved across UHDB’s different community sites, so that more patients across the region are able to benefit from this care.
The mobile unit and has been supplied by D-Hive, a wholly owned subsidiary of UHDB.
Dave Tipper added: “We are extremely grateful to D-Hive for working with us to supply this new mobile MRI unit, which will make a huge difference, both in the short and long term. Without this facility, we would not be able to manage demand for this important service, while our new scanners are installed. Beyond that, having the ability to move this mobile MRI scanner across all of our community sites will be hugely beneficial and will allow more patients to receive this care in the community, closer to their own homes. We will effectively be taking MRI to the patient, which is something very few NHS Trusts have the ability to do, so we are very pleased to now have this function.”
Darren Riley, Commercial Director at D-Hive, said: “It’s great to be part of UHDB's ambitious equipment upgrade plans; ensuring the whole process is as financially efficient as it can be by removing the downtime the Trust may have experienced otherwise. We hope to grow from this and be able to provide a similar service to other NHS Trusts, bringing ongoing value back to UHDB.”
