East Surrey Hospital works with trusted partner to achieve its DR transition

East Surrey Hospital is a regional trauma unit and provides nearly 700 beds for its local catchment areas. Until recently Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust had no digital radiography facilities, but the project team had a clear idea of what it needed.

“We entered the DR transition project with less knowledge and experience than many other organisations. We did, however, have a clear vision of what the outcomes would look like; we just needed to find a trusted partner to work with,” explained operations manager Diane Mcfeeters. “We have now successfully concluded the project and I am confident to supply positive endorsements about the Fujifilm products and service we experienced.

“Our specification was to replace a 20-year-old x-ray room with a product that was robust, provided superior image quality, delivered low dose and was easy to use,” said Mcfeeters. “We also needed a room that would handle a large amount of trolley work, 24 hours a day, and not deteriorate in condition or have downtime. The Fujifilm equipment has delivered on all our requirements.

“We had initially been impressed by the demonstration of Fujifilm’s slimline, lightweight D-Evo II detector that was introduced to the project team. We also gained more confidence from a positive site visit to Manchester hospital. The Fujifilm Visionary Suite was installed in one of our 24-hour emergency department rooms, and three Fujifilm Retrofit units were installed alongside existing equipment in our plain film rooms over a five-month period. Since then we also purchased two Fujifilm FDR Go Plus mobile units and an FDR nano mobile.”

Mcfeeters said that the project was straightforward and well coordinated. There were no technical issues or radiation protection concerns.

“Applications training is delivered at the point of installation to a very high standard and has been repeated several times when we have had large intakes of new staff,” she added. “Maintenance visits are organised to accommodate our service – not at peak times – and have not been cancelled at short notice.”

Picture: The Visionary Suite room at East Surrey Hospital.

Published on page 32 of the April 2021 issue of RAD Magazine.