New CT scanner to slash QEH A&E waiting times

In a major boost to emergency medical care, the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) will have its own CT scanner, a development expected to reduce waiting times and improve patient care, the hospital’s top emergency services official said on Monday.

Head of the A&E Department, Dr Anne-Marie Cruickshank, confirmed that the long-announced, much-talked-about scanner has been fully installed and that training for radiographers has begun to make the service operational by the end of February.

“We have been blessed to have a CT scan now in the A&E. It has been finalised,” she said during the QEH Pulse Radio Show on Monday.

“Engineering has done a lot of hard work to get it set up. This week, we started applications and training for radiographers from the radiology department, so very soon, we hope before the end of the month, it will be up and running.”

She noted that this marks a first for QEH’s A&E, which has never had an in-house CT scanner.

Until now, all emergency CT scans have been done in the hospital’s main radiology department, contributing to delays in diagnosis and treatment.

Dr Cruickshank acknowledged that while the new scanner is a significant improvement, it will not operate around the clock at first.

“We’re hoping with this CT scan, we can decrease the time to imaging. We know we’re starting off slowly and won’t be able to cover the 24-hour shifts just yet. We’ll continue to use the main radiology department to assist with scans, but this will definitely speed up the process,” she said.

The scanner, which was donated to the hospital, provides a much-needed boost to the ongoing expansion of the A&E department, which is aimed at reducing wait times and improving emergency care efficiency.

The installation further aligns with QEH’s broader three-year strategy to modernise hospital services, following an announcement by chief executive officer Neil Clark last year that the hospital would be overhauling its care system with digital patient records and additional medical staff.

The new Health Information System is expected to streamline patient data access, while the addition of the CT scanner will further enhance emergency response capabilities.