Refurbishing the Fluoroscopy Suite

My University Hospitals Sussex continues to prioritise the Trust’s Patient First ambition to improve patient services and quality of care. This year, the charity has funded the refurbishment of the Fluoroscopy Suite at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, providing a state-of-the-art service for paediatric patients across the region.

Fluoroscopy is a procedure that makes a real-time video of the movements inside a part of the body by using x-rays. The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital Fluoroscopy Suite provides services for both acute and elective pathways, and primarily gastric and speech and language patients. As the hospital is the regional paediatric centre, it provides the only 24/7 dedicated paediatric fluoroscopy service to the South East.

The refurbishment of the Fluoroscopy Suite saw the Trust Capital team work successfully with the PFI owner, Kajima, and My University Hospitals Sussex to enable the delivery of a vibrant ocean-themed room, benefitting more than 400 children a year that use the service. In addition, new imaging equipment that provides better image quality has been installed and, crucially, with software adaptable to a child’s age and size, there will be a decrease in radiation dosage. Improvements to the service are evident already, with reduced waiting times and diagnostic pathways, a less stressful experience for patients and the ability to begin expanding services.

Emily Loaring, Senior Paediatric Radiographer, was thrilled with the new suite:

Patients and their parents have been praising the room, including parent Robert Curtis: “I’ve been in fluoroscopy rooms before, but I’ve never seen one that is so well set up and decorated.”

If you would like to help us fund more state-of-the-art equipment to improve the care in your local NHS hospitals, then please consider making a donation today.