The London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH) has acquired three new Siemens Healthineers CT scanners across its three primary sites, with support from Siemens Financial Services (SFS).
LNWH is a teaching and district general hospital Trust that operates from three main sites: Ealing Hospital, Central Middlesex Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital. As one of the largest integrated healthcare Trusts in the country, its radiology department has 320 staff members working across these sites.
For some time, one of the two scanners at Ealing Hospital had been decommissioned and needed to be replaced.
Tanuja Khiroya, radiology general manager at LNWH put together a business case to replace the scanner. Tanuja explained: “Only having one functional CT scanner at the hospital presented a potential risk as Ealing is a busy general hospital with a bustling A&E as well, if the only functional scanner were to suffer any issues the workload would need to transfer to Northwick Park. This would create a serious strain on resources on the Acute site at Northwick Park.”
In addition to replacing the scanner at Ealing, the Trust made a case for replacing two of the older scanners still in operation at its other two sites. The scanner at Central Middlesex Hospital, for example, was nearly ten years old and, while still fully functional, upgrading to newer technology would improve efficiency and diagnosis.
During the clinical evaluations process, the three Lead CT radiographers evaluated a range of equipment and agreed that Siemens Healthineers offered the best in class technology and price for their requirements. “The team liked the platform resolution; it was user-friendly and in terms of functionality scored better than competitors,” added Tanuja.
Jason Chalcroft at Siemens Healthineers commented: “We were able to work collaboratively with the Trust to identify their specific needs and offer the best possible solution for them.”
The Trust worked with the NHS supply chain to access a competitive finance solution which made acquiring the technology financially sustainable, based on a seven-year financing term, and through this bench marking process, SFS were able to provide a best-in-class cost-effective funding solution.
“Working with equipment and finance from Siemens has been useful for us. Everyone at Siemens is very responsive and knowledgeable so it has been easy to build on previous relationships,” Tanuja said.
The first scanner was installed at Ealing in September and although the platform was new for some of the team, cross-site working in the radiology department has meant that staff from Central Middlesex and Northwick Park have been able to familiarise themselves with the interface ahead of installation at these latter two sites in February.
London North West is an example of how NHS Trusts can benefit from having a competitive end-to-end solution from a single trusted brand.
Penny Pinnock, sales manager – public sector and healthcare finance at Siemens Financial Services, said: “We were able to offer the best value for the equipment because our specialist team understands the significance these scanners will have in terms of increasing diagnostic efficiency and enhancing treatment.”
