A unique imaging centre in North London has officially opened its doors to patients following accreditation from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
The Imaging Centre Limited (TIC) at Barnet Football Club’s Hive Stadium is the first in a series of planned diagnostic centres built to improve community access to CT, MRI, ultrasound and X-ray imaging examinations in a high-calibre environment. It will include the latest advanced imaging equipment from Canon Medical Systems.
Patients can be referred by their GP, NHS or private consultant and be scanned within days - much quicker than the non-urgent NHS referral-for-treatment 18-week wait commitment. This, says TIC, will greatly speed up diagnosis, improve clinical decision making and treatment planning.
The facility will open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, extending to 24 hours as demand requires. The non-clinical feel to the centre will help draw in nervous patients who may usually decline diagnostic appointments. It will also provide easy and plentiful on-site parking.
TIC will continue to provide imaging examinations to Barnet Football Club players, managing or preventing injuries and optimising training schedules based on individual anatomies. It also offers local cricket, rugby and athletic clubs a discreet imaging facility for sports medicine.
“Skill shortages in the NHS are acute and the demand for innovative imaging scans as a frontline diagnostic test is outstripping capacity at most NHS hospitals,” said Richard Bartlett, chief operating officer at The Imaging Centre. “Our aim with TIC at Barnet Football Club is a blueprint for further community based imaging centres where patients can be seen quickly using the latest technology. Clinicians can swiftly gain access to detailed images and reports that they need to make an accurate and informed diagnosis. Greater imaging capacity across the UK will mean an improved flow of healthcare referrals that support the NHS and improve the overall wellbeing of local communities.”
TIC offers imaging equipment not currently found in other local North London hospitals or clinics. This includes the UK’s first Vantage Galan 3T MRI from Canon Medical Systems. 3T MRI scanners are known to be extremely noisy but, according to Canon Medical Systems, the Galan is the quietest MRI on the market, emitting a 63dB acoustic noise when scanning with its Pianissimo Zen sequences. This is only 2dB above ambient noise from every sequence scanned.
An Aquilion One Genesis Edition CT scanner, Aplio i-series ultrasound scanner and Radrex Digital X-ray, all from Canon Medical Systems are also installed to provide a spectrum of diagnostic imaging tests for most clinical needs.
Tony Kleanthous, Barnet Football Club chairman and CEO of TIC, added: “The conception of TIC was for first class imaging for elite sports people. However, it doesn’t make sense to have advanced imaging equipment stood idle when not in use, especially when the NHS is facing so many pressures.
"This is just the start of our community imaging business plan and we hope to roll the concept out across the UK. Patient care at the heart of communities will improve the health and wellbeing for everyone.”
