Female and infant fluoroscopy procedures enhanced to deliver high-quality care

Female fluoroscopy procedures including Hysterosalpingography (HSG) to assess uterine cavity and fallopian tubes, as well as video urodynamics to study pressure/flow in the lower urinary tract have been upgraded at Birmingham Women’s Hospital with the introduction of an Ultimax-i from Canon Medical Systems UK.

The Ultimax-i has the potential to deliver many service efficiencies including broadening the range of on-site fluoroscopy procedures for babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Previously, newborns would have been transferred for these imaging procedures by ambulance to the Children’s site, 10-15 minutes away, depending on traffic, and back again. Now, patient safety, time, transport, travel-related carbon emissions and parental anxieties have all been reduced.

Dr Moji Balogun, Consultant Radiologist at Birmingham Women’s Hospital states, “Our HSG caseload is really high, at the last audit we were the busiest provider in the country, so with a more modern fluoroscopy system we are ready to embrace future workloads and give greater comfort to our female patients. On-site fluoroscopy capabilities for babies are also very valuable to avoid the fragile transfers. The lower dose, image quality and ease of use are key highlights, plus the small footprint of the system works well in our compact room.”

The Ultimax-i replaces a 13-year-old system to modernise patient imaging services and introduce easier working practices for staff. The adjustable C-arm with its large area flat panel detector works around the patient and enables easy access for radiographers, nurses and clinicians from both sides of the table during simple or complex procedures. The table height is also easily adjustable, not only to work at an optimum level to suit all heights of users, but also to lower to just 52cm for patients to easily get on to the table without needing steps.

Louis Westley, Account Manager at Canon Medical Systems UK states, “We’ve worked closely with the team at Birmingham Women’s Hospital to ensure hospital staff were quickly trained on the new system and were confident about using all the features of the Ultimax-i for their specific workloads. Responsiveness to all questions at the start of a new customer journey is vital and we look forward to supporting them into the future.”

Birmingham Women’s Hospital, part of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, is a centre of excellence providing specialist services to more than 50,000 women, men and their families each year. It is one of two dedicated women’s hospitals in the UK, with the busiest single site maternity unit delivering more than 8,200 babies a year.