Diagnosis is faster, treatment starts earlier

Jul 4 2008 by Karen Wilson, The Journal

OVER the past 60 years our patients have benefited hugely from advances in technology and procedures – allowing faster diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

We are now better equipped to screen against diseases and conditions which once would have gone undetected.

Northumbria Healthcare has invested in mobile MRI scanners in communities in Berwick, Wansbeck and Alnwick, so we can now offer patients speedier access to a technology that gives a faster and more detailed diagnosis. We also have mobile CT scanners in addition to the permanent ones at Wansbeck and North Tyneside General Hospitals.

Bowel cancer is one of the UK’s most common cancers and Northumbria Healthcare is helping to tackle it by providing a screening service at Wansbeck and North Tyneside General hospitals.

We’ve also installed a computerised x-ray system that allows digital x-rays to be viewed by consultant radiologists at hospitals in Wansbeck and North Tyneside. This is a vast improvement on consultants having to wait for plate x-rays to be physically transported to them for them to look at.

Northumbria Healthcare continues to provide services closer to our patients once they have been diagnosed. We were the first in the country to have a nurse-led chemotherapy unit in Hexham, and followed up this success with a similar service in Berwick, again saving our patients making lengthy trips.