Bradford Royal Infirmary in the U.K. has installed a relocatable CT scanner to increase imaging capacity and to reduce the risk of cross-infection from COVID-19, according to a report from the British Institute of Radiology.
The scanner, which was deployed by Canon Medical Systems U.K., was installed at a temporary facility in the hospital's car park, which is located between the accident, emergency, and radiology departments.
Bradford Royal Infirmary's relocatable CT scanner. Image courtesy of Bradford Royal Infirmary.The temporary site means radiographers don't have to share a common CT control room, minimizing infection risk. Bradford Royal Infirmary also hopes the scanner will help the hospital catch up with the workload of imaging studies that were postponed during the spring.
"The scanner allows us to keep ‘Green’ patients (without suspected COVID-19) separate from 'Red' (suspected COVID-19 patients), mirroring the cohorting we have on the wards," stated Dr. Mark Kon, consultant thoracic radiologist and clinical director of radiology at the hospital.
"An additional and rapidly installed CT scanner will also bring clear benefits of increasing our radiology capacity. We will be carrying out pre-operation chest scans to ensure our patients are COVID-19 free before undergoing major surgery, and the scanner may also be useful in the recovery phase when we start to catch-up with the patient imaging workload that has been put on hold during April and May," he said.
