New static PET scanner is first in the country
Poole Hospital’s new
state-of-the-art static PET/CT scanning service has imaged its
first patients this week.
The purpose-built facility,
next to our nuclear medicine department, replaces a mobile unit
which visited each Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
It’s the first static scanner
in Dorset, and the first of its kind in the country. It provides
the most detailed imaging ever, using lower doses of radiation to
make it safer for patients. The scanner offers hybrid diagnostic
imaging – a combination of PET and CT images, while the unit’s
layout is far more spacious and comfortable for patients than the
mobile facility was.
It will mainly be used to
image and stage cancers, helping to identify changes in size and
location as well as indicating how effective treatment is. It also
allows greater scope than the mobile unit, meaning children and
inpatients can now be scanned for the first time, as well as being
put to use in research studies.
The scanner will be operated
by Alliance Medical in partnership with our nuclear medicine and
medical physics teams. Radiologists from Poole and Bournemouth
Hospitals will continue to provide the resultant clinical
reports.
“This is a fantastic new
facility, and it’s great to know that patients in the county will
be benefitting from the state-of-the-art imaging now possible
here,” said Dr Kat Dixon, consultant clinical scientist and head of
nuclear medicine at Poole Hospital.
“The differences between the
mobile and static facilities are enormous, and I am confident
patients will really appreciate the greatly improved environment,
space and comfort.”
The scanner’s arrival has
been made possible thanks to a £500,000 donation from the Poole
Hospital Cancer Treatment Trust charity, and forms part of a
national agreement between Alliance Medical and NHS England to
provide more static scanners across the country.