Category: Uncategorized

IV Service – vascular access support

Due to the current increase in demand across the Trust for Intravenous (IV) line placement, a team of mixed specialities from across the Trust have joined together to support this process.

This team, made up of staff from haematology/oncology, nutrition, anaesthetic, radiology imaging and gastro, will be based in the new Vascular Access Suite in Radiology and will provide the service from Monday – Friday from 9am – 5pm at Heartlands. A provision will be in place at Good Hope which will run twice weekly and plans are being made to provide this at Solihull.

The specialist multi-disciplinary team will be able to ensure all patients are vetted to ensure the correct selection and placement of IV, PICC or mid-lines. It will be primarily for nutrition, IV antibiotics and haematology/oncology IV access .

This service is planned to launch on 14 August. Further details for staff will bin the Weekly Round-up.

General Anaesthetic MRI/CT Service

Neil Crooks, consultant in Anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, and Nikki Brockie, imaging services lead, have recently established an elective service to provide MRI and CT scans under general anaesthesia.

The service is aimed at patients who are unable to tolerate scans awake. To date, patients have come from a range of specialities including neurology, acute medicine, orthopaedics, ENT and infectious diseases, but the service is open to all specialities. There are a variety of reasons why patients cannot tolerate these procedures awake, but common examples include learning difficulties, movement disorders and pain.

Up until now there has been no formal arrangement to facilitate scans for this group of patients. This has led to prolonged waiting times, with scans being done on an ad hoc basis when appropriate expertise was available.

By providing this service we can give patients a date for their scan. This allows proper pre-assessment and planning. It also allows carers time to prepare and plan for those patients with learning difficulties. A team with appropriate expertise (Consultant anaesthetist/ intensivist, ODP and ITU nurse) will look after these patients.

The service currently runs every fourth Thursday and three to four patients can be accommodated per day. With prior arrangement, it may be possible to carry out other procedures e.g. blood tests, ECGs while the patient is asleep.

Due to the limited number of places on each list, requests must only come from consultants. Requests can be made via the following email address: gamriscanrequests@heartofengland.nhs.uk. If you wish to discuss a request directly, please contact: neil.crooks@heartofengland.nhs.uk.

Requests for urgent inpatient scans should continue to be arranged by contacting the ITU registrar on call via bleep 2336.

Developments in radiology are the focus of health talk at Good Hope Hospital

Technological advances in the field of radiology, which are currently benefitting patients at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust hospitals, are the focus of a health talk at Good Hope Hospital in July.

Radiology is a rapidly evolving area of medicine and patients at Good Hope, Heartlands and Solihull hospitals are now benefitting from state- of-the-art equipment as part of a £3 million project to transform the Trust’s imaging offer for its patients.

Throughout the year, at Heartlands, the Trust has completed a £680,000 refurbishment of the interventional radiology suite, a £270,000 digital x-ray room in its Emergency Department and a £425,000 purpose-built general x-ray department, as well as installing a new CT scanner.

Good Hope Hospital will see the arrival of a new CT scanner in July, which follows the installation of a new ultrasound machine and a complete refurbishment of the x-ray room in its Emergency Imaging Department.

The July health talk held by the Trust will be on the topic of the latest developments in technology in radiology and will be led by the Trust’s superintendent radiographer for CT/MRI, Eunan McGlynn.  He said:

“The talk at Good Hope will be a great opportunity to inform people about the exciting developments in radiology going on at the Trust but also across radiology as a whole, as advances are happening in imaging technology all the time.

“Upgrading to the latest technology has allowed us to provide our patients with the highest level of care. It is also great to be able to provide staff with the latest equipment and training to enhance their skills and development. The modern facilities and state-of-the-art equipment enable us to offer a consistent and continuous 24/7 patient-centred service. The new surroundings will also make a huge difference to not only the service but to all our hospital sites, patients’ and staff’s care and experience.”

The talk will take place in the Education Centre at Good Hope Hospital on Wednesday 26 July, between 5pm and 7pm.

To book your place on the talk please contact Sandra White, membership and engagement manager at the Trust, on 0121 424 1218 or email membership@heartofengland.nhs.uk

The Trust runs 10 health talks a year to help raise awareness of a range of health conditions, as well as providing information about the treatment and support that is available.

Visit www.heartofengland.nhs.uk/membership to find out more about upcoming talks and about becoming a member of the Trust.

Good Hope Hospital to see the arrival of new state-of-the-art CT scanner

Patients and staff at Good Hope are set to benefit from the arrival of a new state-of-the-art CT scanner.

Work will begin to remove the old scanner on 7 July, allowing for the surrounding area to be refurbished ahead of the arrival of the new equipment which is planned to be up and running in September.

The new scanner will not only provide the team with higher quality images, but the equipment will allow for an extended range of exams for patients.

Upgrading the CT scanner is part of a wider £3 million equipment refurbishment project running throughout the Imaging Department.

Good Hope has already seen the arrival of a new ultrasound machine and a complete refurbishment of the x-ray room in its Emergency Imaging Department. Please note that alternative CT provisions will be in place at Good Hope whilst the refurbishment work is undertaken to
ensure minimal disruption to the service.

Good Hope Hospital moves to syringeless injector technology

Louise Rodgers, CT Site Lead at Good Hope Hospital commented that, “Since having the Ulrich we have significantly reduced the amount of contrast we have administered to patients, without compromising image quality. This is particularly true for CT Pulmonary Angiogram studies, where we are giving less than half the amount of contrast media by utilising the Ulrich’s ‘Contrast Substitution function’. There has been a significant reduction in waste disposal as we no longer have to dispose of individual syringes. Whilst the efficiency and throughput of patients has improved with the Ulrich reservoir contrast injector, as time is no longer spent filling syringes in between patients. We also feel Ulrich promote a very safety conscious injector, with a number of air detectors throughout the device. Further to this, the risk of extravasation has been significantly decreased with the use of a pre-saline injection, acting as a ‘test injection’ for the required flow rate. These safety factors, alongside the improved efficiency within the CT department, have given us great confidence in the Ulrich injector and we are very pleased with the results we are getting from using this system. The educational support provided by Synapse Medical UK has helped us integrate the CT Motion seamlessly into a very busy CT department”.

Picture perfect as imaging department goes digital

Patients set to benefit from the latest state-of-the art digital imaging technology as phase 1 of a £3 million equipment refurbishment nears completion.

 This month, Heartlands completed the £680,000 refurbishment of the interventional radiology suite along with a £270,000 digital x-ray room in its Emergency Department and £425,000 purpose-built general x-ray room within the main hospital. This follows the replacement of a digital x-ray mobile, an image intensifier and CT scanner equipment earlier this year.

The trustwide refurbishment project has also seen Good Hope take arrival of a new ultrasound machine in the main imaging department and a new digital x-ray room in its Emergency  Imaging Department. Plans are now underway to replace the CT scanner with completion by the summer.

The modern facilities and state-of-the-art imaging equipment, which offer a continuous 24/7 patient-centred service, will allow the team to see and treat more patients, more quickly due to reduced waiting times, along with the ability to perform a wider-range of procedures. The new surroundings will also make a huge difference to not only the service but to all our hospital sites, patients and staffs’ care and experience.

Thomas Lowbridge, Group Manager & Lead Radiographer for Imaging said:

“It’s fantastic to see the new facilities open and our staff are really enjoying using the new equipment. As we progress our plans, it is great to see our patients and staff benefitting from the upgrade.  There is still some work to be done at each of our hospitals to complete the upgrade and there is lots of preparation to do as the design and enabling works have begun on the Ambulatory Care and Diagnostics (ACAD) centre at Heartlands. The £70m project is due for completion in 2020 and it will provide us with world-class facilities that really will see us pioneering the future of medical imaging.”

As part of the project, the team has also refreshed their website, providing a range of information for patients and staff wanting to know more about the service on offer. You can visit this at: https://imaging.heartofengland.nhs.uk/ you can also follow @HEFTradiology and keep an eye out for updates in future editions of News@.

Radiology refurbishment update

Work has been completed at Heartlands and the new CT scanner is fully installed and operational.

Plans are underway at Good Hope to remove the old CT scanner and prepare the area so that the new scanner can be installed. The new interventional radiology suite at Heartlands opened for patients at the end of March and we will bring you a full look inside at the new facilities in the next edition.

The imaging team ran a successful recruitment drive in February, attending an event at Birmingham City University to attract new members to the team.

The team has already interviewed 27 candidates and are looking to continue recruiting over the coming months.

If you would be interested to see what opportunities are available, visit https://imaging.heartofengland.nhs.uk or follow @heftradiology for the latest updates.

Replacement CT Scanners

The next phase of the imaging equipment replacement is now underway as work has started at Heartlands to replace the CT scanner.

There is now a temporary CT scanner operational which is located in the middle of the X-ray department. This means that the CT department will be separated for around six to eight weeks as work is undertaken to install the replacement scanner.

Whilst the work is carried out, some disruption to service may occur until the re-opening of the CT department with the new scanner in late March.

Following this work, the old CT scanner at Good Hope will be removed in late March with the installation of the new scanner beginning late April. The new scanner at Good Hope should be operational in mid May 2017.

There will also be some disruption to the CT service at Good Hope while the work is carried out but once complete, the equipment upgrade will make a huge difference to not only the service but to all our hospital sites, patients and staffs’ care and experience.

Theatre upgrade for interventional radiology

Interventional radiology is a medical speciality that uses the various imaging and scanning facilities to offer a range of minimally invasive procedures which, in many cases, can replace conventional open surgery. Advances in scanning and medical device technologies over recent years have seen a huge increase in the scope and ability of Interventional Radiology to treat a wide variety of conditions.

Heartlands has one of the busiest interventional radiology centres in the country, offering over 60 different procedures and performing over 2,500 examinations a year. As part of the rolling improvement works currently underway with the imaging department, a £750,000 refurbishment of the theatre is underway to upgrade the equipment and facilities.

The modern facilities and state-of-the-art imaging equipment will allow the team to see and treat more patients, more quickly due to reduced waiting times, along with the ability to perform a wider-range of procedures. The new surroundings will also make a huge difference to not only the service but to all our hospital sites, patients and staffs’ care and experience.

In order to complete the upgrade, the theatre will remain closed until the opening of the replacement theatre in March. The next stage of the project will see the relocation and upgrade of the general x-ray room with digital equipment, followed by a newly refurbished digital x-ray room in the Emergency Department. Further equipment purchased includes a digital x-ray mobile, an image intensifier, MRI and CT scanner. The Interventional Radiology theatre at Good Hope was fully refurbished and upgraded in 2012, along with seeing the arrival of a new ultrasound machine and a digital x-ray room in its Emergency  Imaging Department late last year.

There may be some slight changes to the imaging and radiology service while the on-going transformation work is carried out. All patients with related appointments will be informed ahead of attending the hospital and operational updates for staff will be in the weekly Round-up.

Further improvement plans are underway, not just at Heartlands and Good Hope, but Solihull too. The latest updates are available @HEFTradiology and keep an eye out in future editions of News@.

£3 million investment to provide best in patient care

Patients are set to benefit following the opening of a new state of the art digital x-ray room at Good Hope.  Refurbishment of the x-ray room started in the summer and was completed in October following the arrival of the new equipment. The new x-ray room, based in the Emergency Department, will not only give patients access to the best care and experience, it will support the team and the site to better manage the increasingly heavy demand on its emergency services.

Good Hope has already benefitted from the arrival of a new ultrasound machine in the main imaging department and there are further plans in place to replace the CT Scanner later this year along with adding an additional MRI scanner in April 2017.

The imaging equipment replacement is part of a larger project across all sites, which has seen an investment of over £3m, to upgrade and modernise the imaging facilities ahead of the planned developments with the ACAD.

Work will be carried out over the coming months and is set to complete by the summer of 2017. These will include a replacement interventional radiology room at Heartlands along with the relocation and replacement of general x-ray room, replacement of the ED x-ray room, digital x-ray mobile, an image intensifier, MRI and CT scanner. Solihull will also be receiving new equipment in the coming months, to which plans are currently being finalised.

The teams are now working with NHS Supply Chain in the design of a rolling equipment replacement programme and have started exploring possible options for the next financial year and beyond. Further information and the details will be circulated to patients and staff once the timelines have been agreed as, in order to complete the work, some disruption to service may occur.

Once complete, the imaging equipment upgrade will make a huge difference to not only the service but to all our hospital sites, patients and staffs’ care and experience.