The Chesterfield Royal Hospital has installed a new CT scanner as part of a completely redesigned CT scanning suite.
The Royal has had two CT scanners for some time, but they operated on opposite sides of the imaging department. A newly-designed self-contained waiting treatment area will allow both CT scanners to operate in one dedicated space.
Karen Moxham, the Royal’s head of imaging, said: “We’re decommissioning the elder of our two CT scanners and using this as an opportunity to combine the scanners into a single area which will benefit our CT team and its patients. When the new scanner was installed we had little option other than to accommodate it in the only free space we had, but this move is phase one of a grander plan.
“The new CT scanner is now operational and we are in the process of moving the appointments over from the current scanner. This means that within the next month the old scanner will become obsolete and free up space for us to house a second MRI scanner. We put together a business case to extend out of the department, giving us more room for a purpose built waiting area and allowing us to redesign the space to optimise the patient flow.
“It’s very exciting because it means we will have two separate and dedicated suites for us to perform MRI and CT Scans, improve privacy and dignity for our patients with better changing facilities and provide a more comfortable waiting area. It also improves our resilience in the event of a scanner failing, we will always have a working unit to provide scans for our emergency patients.”
Work on the MRI build will begin in the summer and is expected to be finished in November with the new MRI scanner installed and operational by the end of the year.
