News

Update on PET-CT services in the Thames Valley area

Joint statement from NHS England and Improvement, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and InHealth.

The NHS is committed to detecting more cancers earlier to save more lives. That means a major increase in scanning and diagnostics, so patients can easily access services like PET-CT scanning.

To that end, NHS England and Improvement, Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust, and InHealth are pleased to announce we have now signed a formal partnership agreement.

It creates new and additional services for patients who need these important services across the Thames Valley provided by InHealth while sustaining the PET-CT scanning service on the Churchill site provided by the OUH.

These brand-new scanning facilities will be based in Milton Keynes (Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust), Swindon (Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and Reading (Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust) provided by InHealth using highly skilled clinical staff.

The new sites will use modern mobile scanners, with the aim of putting in place permanent facilities in the longer term.

This new arrangement will help reduce waiting times, as well as ensuring the easy transfer of scans and scan reports between different doctors and sites in more convenient locations for patients across the region.

In time, there may also be an opportunity to develop additional local scanning services across the Thames Valley.