Pennine NHS trust gets new imaging tech

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has gone live with new imaging technology, aiming to transform how clinicians examine scans.

This includes a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) from supplier Sectra, which allows staff to use 3D orthopaedic tools to virtually reconstruct joints ahead of procedures, as well as being able to view images remotely.

The system also has a multidisciplinary team meeting module, as well as teaching features to help train NHS staff.

Suraj Amnkar, consultant radiologist and PACS clinical lead for the trust, said radiology is “pivotal in patient care management” and that the new system “works well with our existing digital patient record systems, and with a zero footprint viewer is easily accessible to clinicians delivering frontline care”.

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is part of a Manchester-wide diagnostic imaging project that will see eight trusts in the region receive the cloud-based PACS, alongside a vendor-neutral archive, giving them easier access to images across all the hospitals in the region.

It also means clinicians will be able to access images through their own electronic patient record systems, as well as through the region’s shared care record.

Elaine Quick, Greater Manchester’s PACS implementation lead, said she has been impressed with how teams across Pennine Acute Hospitals have worked to get the system in place quickly, while dealing with Covid-19 and winter pressures.

“This first go-live is the start of the main journey,” she said. “We will be able to maximise how our staff work across different trusts and we will be able to connect 15 years’ worth of rich data currently isolated in individual trusts.”

The trusts involved in the programme include Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust,  Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust and Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care Foundation Trust.

It also includes the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, which covers all the hospitals under Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust as well as Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.