Patients will benefit from a £65,000 Heidelberg Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) retinal scanner which has been installed at North Cambridgeshire Hospital (NCH) in Wisbech.
The new state-of-the-art equipment was installed by The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn (QEH), which delivers the Ophthalmology Service at NCH. The OCT was purchased with support provided by a Medical Education Grant from Bayer.
The scanner will enable the retinal service to detect earlier signs of conditions such as age-related wet macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, which can cause blindness. The OCT enhances the monitoring of the progression of conditions i.e. how patients are responding to eye treatments. Furthermore, the scanner enables staff to work collaboratively between QEH and NCH sites, to rapidly identify where referrals are needed and ensure patients receive the best possible care.
The purchase is an important step for QEH as it works towards its strategic objective to modernise its infrastructure and medical equipment to support the delivery of optimal care.