Shrewsbury and Telford extends Agfa PACS

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has extended its contract with Agfa HealthCare for its picture archiving and communications system.

The new deal, which runs until December 2018, includes a full upgrade of the trust’s PACS; two of Agfa’s mobile direct radiology units on a six month trial; and the replacement of eight computed radiography units, including three at community hospitals.

Shrewsbury and Telford has been an Agfa customer since 2002, before the widespread introduction of PACS through the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

The trust wanted to update its current systems to benefit from technological advances and to give clinicians easier access to images.

“The PACS upgrade and the use of DR mobile will significantly improve our radiology workflow and the service delivery right from the image acquisition stage at the bedside through to the use of the advanced visualisation tools that maximise user productivity,” said PACS manager, Richard Williams, in a statement.

The trust’s latest PACS will be a single, workflow-based system. The DR units will allow for image capture on wards.

Wireless connectivity to the hospital network will allow RIS data to be uploaded to the mobile system, and images will be be sent instantaneously to the PACS system.

Grant Witheridge, general manager of Agfa HealthCare UK, said: “I am delighted that Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital has chosen to extend with Agfa HealthCare and upgrade their PACS solutions and image acquisition technology.”