IT revamp will improve care for radiotherapy patients

The investment will mean that clinicians will be able to remotely access patient scans and treatment plans from any location within the Trust.

New computers, up-to-date software and server hardware are currently being installed in the Radiotherapy department. This will streamline the service and benefit patients undergoing radiotherapy as part of their treatment for cancer at The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH).

Paul Evans, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Radiotherapy Physics at SaTH, said: “We have been planning and working on this project to upgrade the software and servers in Radiotherapy for the last two years, and it has finally come to fruition, which is great news for both our patients and our staff.

“This means that we can now remotely access scans and complex treatment plans for our patients from any location. Until now everyone in the Multi-Disciplinary Team had to be in the same room, looking at the same screen.

“This will benefit patients as it means that there will be fewer delays to starting their treatment. It also means that our staff will have a more flexible and rewarding way of working.”

Paul added: “This upgrade has been made possible by redeploying existing radiotherapy funds, which is fantastic news as it means that we haven’t incurred the Trust any additional costs.

“During the planning of this project we have been able to make savings by, for example, better procurement with our external suppliers. Some equipment maintenance contracts formerly held with the manufacturer have been brought in-house with considerable cost savings and no reduction in machine reliability.

“We have then been allowed to ring-fence those savings to re-invest back into the department for this project and hence improve the quality of radiotherapy.”

The radiotherapy department, which is based in the Lingen Davies Centre at RSH, houses three state-of-the-art Linear Accelerators and a wide-bore CT scanner.