Imaging

Staffing
It has been a challenging year in the Imaging Directorate, mainly owing to difficulties in maintaining staffing levels. We have, however, been fortunate in being able to retain most of our existing staff and recruit new staff where necessary and, as a result, have maintained and increased our level of service. In the process we have said a fond farewell to some old faces and welcomed new ones to our unit.

Nuclear Medicine
The purchasing process is underway for the procurement of a new, dual-headed gamma camera with Positron Emission Tomography facility. We hope to have the new equipment installed by October 2000.

The dual-headed gamma camera will help us to offer a speedier service with increased quality. The Positron Emission Tomography facility will provide an exciting opportunity for research in new ways to identify the site of a tumour and aid its treatment.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
We are delighted to have been offered monies from the New Opportunities Fund to purchase a replacement MRI machine, which will be installed in the autumn of 2001. In the meantime, we continue to offer an MRI service to Wirral Hospital NHS Trust as well as to CCO patients. Wirral Hospital has, in fact, embarked on a public appeal to fund its own MRI machine, but in the interim period we will continue this work at CCO.

Computed Tomography
Computed Tomography activity continues to increase year on year and there has been a further growth of six per cent over the past 12 months. The continued increase in workload has caused us some concern in that it might increase waiting times for examination, although we feel we have kept these within acceptable limits at the present time. We have been providing a Computed Tomography service for Wirral Hospital patients referred from the Clatterbridge site, but with the recent acquisition by Wirral Hospital of a new spiral Computed Tomography scanner, this workload will be taken over by Wirral Hospital and this should enable us to improve the quality of service we can offer to CCO patients.

X-ray and Ultrasound
Frequently overlooked, these facilities and the staff who operate them form the solid foundation of any Diagnostic Imaging Department and provide an essential service, which is often forgotten against the background of more high-tech imaging facilities.