Trust plan to bring diagnosis to community

Aug 28 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

A PIONEERING new mobile ultrasound service that is already saving lives in Knowsley is to be extended across the region.

The new service has already enabled the early detection of life-threatening conditions for many primary care patients in Knowsley. It is part of the Primary Care Trust’s bid to carry out more traditionally hospital-based services in the community, and cut waiting times.

Aston Healthcare, which introduced the mobile service into its own eight Knowsley surgeries just over a year ago, with the backing of Knowsley PCT, is extending the service to other general practices in the borough for the first time.

This mobile diagnostic ultrasound service is one of the first anywhere in the UK, and is focused on ensuring the earliest possible detection of conditions such as aortic aneurysms, liver, renal, pancreatic and testicular cancers.

One of the most significant benefits has been the reduced waiting times for patients, which health managers last night said in some cases was the difference between life and death.

Mobile scans are available within just one week of request or 24 hours for emergency cases, in contrast to secondary care hospital scanning, where some patients can wait up to 12 weeks for an appointment.

Carol Hart, Aston’s ultrasound service manager, is at the forefront of day-to-day scanning, and has seen many patients benefit from prompt and efficient diagnosis.

She said she believed the mobile service was the future for all GP surgeries within Knowsley PCT, and said more and more services were becoming community-based.

She said: “The equipment is so small and compact that scanning can be performed in any basic GP surgery, and can even be taken into the home or nursing homes to scan elderly, infirm or housebound patients.

“This is making a real difference to the speed at which patients can be diagnosed and referred for the appropriate treatment.”

Aston’s ultrasound service has already successfully performed over 1,600 scans and have cases where patients who have been scanned, referred and had surgery for cancer before they would have even received a scan in secondary care.

The company manages the care of nearly 40,000 primary care patients across 10 practices in Knowsley, Newton-le-Willows and Mansfield as part of the process of Practice Based Commissioning (PBC).

Professor Hill, a consultant radiologist at the Royal Preston Hospital, is responsible for formally supervising the ultrasound service, and ensuring it complies with the highest standards of clinical governance.

He added: “The service provided by Aston Healthcare is one of the most innovative in the country and is genuinely enabling detection and diagnosis of life-threatening illnesses at the earliest opportunity.

“Its expansion throughout Knowsley and, potentially, other PCTs will benefit many, many primary care patients.”

carolineinnes