What Clinicians Say

 

InHealth has provided Northamptonshire with a visiting PETCT scanner since the start of the National procurement in April 2008. List size has increased from 5 or 6 patients a day at the start of the service to 16 patients at each visit currently.  Scan requests come in from a wide range of clinicians in Kettering, Northampton and Milton Keynes hospitals. Once signed off by a local ARSAC licence holder, requests are faxed to the InHealth booking office who work wonders in contacting the patient, explaining the preparation and the scan procedure and in arranging for the patients to turn up at the correct site at the correct time.

 

The radiographers and helpers employed by InHealth on the scanner are cheerful and competent and rarely need additional guidance. They cope well with anxious and frail patients and the vagaries of the NHS.  

 

Scans are returned electronically for reporting in Kettering and Northampton with reports and images available for the requesting Trusts within 2 days of the scan. As the National Contract draws to a close and plans are drawn up for the future of the service both local clinicians and local managers realise that this will be a difficult act to follow. 

 

"PET/CT has revolutionised how we treat certain types of cancer. By showing us things that other procedures aren’t able to, it gives us important new and additional information.”

 

“PET/CT is now a standard part of the patient pathway for lymphoma, and lung and oesophageal cancer, and now plays an important role in telling us whether a patient has

responded to treatment or relapsed.”

 

“The level of service delivered by InHealth is good, and any issues have been addressed and improvements made. The service is now being fine-tuned.”

 

“PET/CT is complicated, and there are many areas in the process where things can go wrong. Many of these are unavoidable due to the nature of the procedure, where we are pushing technology to its limits.”

 

“Where issues have arisen, we have a very good support network with InHealth, the manufacturer and our own Estates Department sorting things out and getting us up and running again quickly.”

 

“I’ve found InHealth to be responsive to feedback, and I have a good relationship with their people. They are now working with us to develop the service and expand the use of PET/CT in the region.”

 

“Although we are currently up to capacity, I am confident that demand

for PET/CT will increase in the future and InHealth are already addressing this issue.”

 

“The new referral form is much better, and I like the fact that we send in a referral by fax and don’t have to do anything else. This means we can free up valuable resources for other tasks.”

 

“The reporting is quick, although we still have some issues getting the images back if our clinicians want to see them.”

 

“The NHS is constantly under pressure to bring down waiting times and speed up patient treatment – and this is a particularly important and sensitive issue with cancer. More rapid imaging helps keep patients within the pathway and means that their treatment starts quicker.”

 

“Patients are getting a very good service.”

 

“With the new InHealth mobile facility we are now able to offer a weekly rather than fortnightly service. For patients this means the scan is done within a few days of referral, and they can have it where they want as the mobile unit is at different locations in the region on a two-week rota.”

 

“This ensures that the patient’s treatment starts quicker, is the most appropriate for their condition and avoids any unnecessary procedures.”

 

 

“When we started using PET/CT in 2005 we shared a mobile facility in Cambridge with Papworth Hospital – a very small service for a very large area. Having our own InHealth mobile facility locally has been fantastic, giving us more capacity and enabling clinicians to refer more patients.”

 

“We’re also finding that PET/CT is useful in cancers we hadn’t routinely used it for before. As we all become more comfortable with the technology we can scan more patients and find more uses for it.”

 

“By giving us a different view of the cancer it’s having a big impact on patient management, and in an increasing number of cases it means we can focus on curative rather than palliative treatment.”

 

“Everybody’s tumours behave and spread in different ways, and PET/CT enables us to provide a more personalised treatment. We can now tailor the treatment to the individual, and not to the disease.”

 

“In common conditions like lung cancer, PET/CT scanning will change the staging in around 30% of cases, which means that many patients are having surgery rather than chemotherapy and vice versa.

 

“The PET/CT service delivered by InHealth is now very good. Now that everybody’s used to the service, it’s working very well.”

 

“The mobile PET/CT unit is here for one day a week and we’re currently able to scan around 12 patients from around the region. Our contract with InHealth is based on an increasing number of patients year-on-year, and they are planning to increase the scanning hours during the day so that we can increase the number of patients seen.”

“We’re gradually increasing the funded indications in the region, but this has to be done sensibly within the available capacity to avoid overwhelming the facilities. Everything is done on a case-by-case basis and it’s working very well.”

 

“The InHealth staff at the Patient Referral Centre are really nice and approachable, and great with patients. The staff in the mobile unit are also very professional and very good with patients.”

 

“The referral process works very well. All the hospitals in the eastern part of

the region send their referrals to me. I check that they are appropriate and then forward them to InHealth, who then contact the patients and arrange the appointments. The whole process is very efficient.”

 

“Where possible, scans are reported locally. With a colleague, I report on scans for Norfolk and Norwich University and Colchester hospitals. It’s a very slick system: our reports on computer are sent back to e-Locum and then on to the relevant clinician.”

 

“The people who commission scans really like the InHealth PET/CT service as it’s simple and quick. Scans are back on the PACS workstation within 48 hours.”

 

“Because it looks at tumours in a completely different way, PET/CT gives

clinicians a more accurate and earlier view of the tumour, and enables more appropriate and personalised treatment.Previously the tumour had to be big enough to change something anatomically – now we can pick it up much earlier.”

 

“Irrespective of Patient Choice, people generally want to be treated well at their local hospital, so having a local PET/CT service is fantastic for the area. Norfolk has a largely rural population and no motorways, so cutting down the cost and inconvenience of travelling long distances is a major benefit for patients.”

 

“Patients want the best treatment with the fewest side effects. The InHealth PET/CT service enables us to tailor the treatment to the individual patient – and in 30% of cases, this treatment will change because of PET/CT.”