PACS passes halfway stage in London and South

The programme to deploy Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) in London and the South of England has passed the halfway stage.

The milestone was passed 16 months after the first PACS from NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) went live in the London cluster. Some 33 trusts have now rolled out PACS in the two clusters under the £12.4bn NHS National Programme for IT.

By the beginning of August the Southern Cluster of NHS CfH reported that that 22 PACS and 20 Radiology Information Systems (RIS) had been deployed. According to CfH PACS is now deployed to 57% of sites in the Southern cluster.

Under CfH 22 sites have received PACS in the South, together 11 PACS in London, and PACS sites are live in all five clusters – albeit with far slower progress in the North-west and West Midlands, North East and East.

As 18 sites in the South and London had already implemented PACS ahead of NPfIT there are now a total of 51 acute trusts using PACS in some form in the two clusters.

Recent deploymemts in the South have included Southampton University Hospitals and the Oxford Radcliffe. Equipment is now understood to be on order for ten more trusts with only two trusts yet to place an order.

A total of 46 million images relating to 2 million patient examinations are now stored on the Cluster Data Store. Once the NPfIT programme is completed a project is set to bgin to connect legacy PACS sites, that predated NPfIT, to the Data Store.

Dr Kishore Reddy, clinical lead for PACS in the Southern cluster said: "This is a significant milestone for the national PACS programme, and demonstrates the progress that has been made in delivering more efficient imaging and diagnostic processes for the NHS.

"For patients, this means fewer wasted appointments or postponed operations due to lost or poor quality images, and shorter waiting times to receive results. Clinicians are also reaping the benefits of PACS because they can now access the right image in the right place at the right time, and collaborate with other consultants to get patients the best possible diagnosis."

Dr Reddy added: "The efficiencies we’ve experienced now we’re using PACS has meant a real reduction in delays for the patient – both in accident and emergency care, and waiting times. The costs we’ve saved from not using film have also been substantial.

"The way the NHS, the suppliers and NHS Connecting for Health have worked together deploying PACS in the London and Southern clusters is a great example of what can be achieved through collaborative working. I’m looking forward to seeing another 12 months of successful PACS deployments across England."

CfH says it will now complete “the bulk of PACS deployments by March 2007”.