Media Release
Date: 20 June 2017
PET-CT cancer scanner's first anniversary celebrations
Staff and charity fund-raisers have been celebrating the first anniversary of the opening of the new PET-CT cancer scanner at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust.
Since the first patient was scanned on 17 June 2016, more than 600 people have been seen in the state-of-the-art suite – higher than the original target set a year ago.
Guests at the ceremony included John Carter, former Chairman of Trustees of the Bath Cancer Unit Support Group (BCUSG) and members who helped raise the massive sum of £1.3m to buy the scanner and help equip the suite.
Mr Carter said: “For a district general hospital to be able to provide such a service is fantastic. It represents what the BCUSG has always worked towards, namely improving the outcomes for people suffering from cancer who live in Bath, north-east Somerset and Wiltshire. It’s everything we could have wished for.”
Consultant Radiologist Richard Graham said: “I just want to thank everyone for their support in helping to provide a service that, in just one year, is as good as if not better than others across the country that have been going for ten years or more.”
Fellow Consultant Radiologist Steward Redman said: “A survey of patients showed that 98 per cent rated their treatment here as excellent or very good, and clinicians who refer patients to us also rated our service highly. We provide high-quality PET and CT scanning with staff from two departments working fantastically well together.”
In the next year it is planned that the PET-CT scanner will be used to help developments, among others, in the treatment and diagnosis of prostate cancer, dementia and spinal infections
ENDS
A PET-CT scanner works by combining two scanning techniques – Positron Emission Tomography and Computerised Tomography – to provide strikingly detailed and precise images of cancer cells in the body. It gives clinicians a much clearer picture of the spread of a cancer, how it is responding to treatment, and whether any cancerous cells remain following a course of treatment.
The RUH was identified as one of six new sites for PET-CT scanning in 2015 as part of a commitment by NHS England to increase patient access to the vital service.
Provision of the new scanner is part of the Trust’s wider strategy for transforming Cancer Care. Plans are already underway for a new cancer centre at the RUH. The £28m Dyson Cancer Centre will be built using a similar approach to that employed in the creation of the hospital’s award-winning Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care – offering cancer patients a truly holistic approach to their treatment.