West Suffolk: Digital Breast Unit

2 April 2012, 05:00

The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust's new digital breast imaging unit has now officially been opened following a £1.2m project to install state-of-the-art machinery.

The project, which was completed earlier this year, saw two analogue mammography machines replaced with digital equipment. A third imaging room has also been created so that the hospital can increase capacity after the government extended the screening range for women.

As part of the investment, West Suffolk has also taken delivery of a new mobile breast screening unit to provide an imaging service within the community.

Ann Hills, superintendent radiographer in the breast imaging department, said: "We are delighted that Lady Elsie has agreed with come to West Suffolk Hospital and officially open the new digital unit.

The state-of-the-art technology is helping us provide an even better service for our patients by allowing us to produce high quality images quickly and efficiently. We are really pleased with the new machinery, which represents a significant investment and will continue to bring benefits long into the future."

As well as providing better quality images, the new system will also reduce the number of women who need to be called back if there are technical problems with the image. This occasionally happened at the old mobile unit, as staff needed to return the films to the hospital for processing and therefore could not check the quality of the image while the woman was still at the unit.

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