The installation took place at place at the new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub in Hornchurch, operated by Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT). The new ‘Hub’ opened its doors in November, and aims to provide ‘an innovative community base offering expanded access to diagnostic testing, alongside integrating primary, community, mental health, and local authority care services, on a single community site’. It is the second BHRUT CDC to benefit from the MRI technology, with Barking Community Hospital having opened last March. Both facilities are equipped with Philips BlueSeal 1.5T magnet, ‘enabling them to deliver sustainable diagnostic testing across Havering and its neighbouring boroughs’.
Philips says its BlueSeal MRI technology is ‘driving sustainable healthcare across the UK’ – where health services contribute to around 4.5% of total UK carbon emissions. The ‘innovation’ comprises a Philips MR 5300 scanner equipped with a ‘revolutionary’ Philips BlueSeal magnet, the global industry’s first 1.5T fully sealed magnet, which requires only 0.5% of the helium of a conventional Philips MR system. The multinational says this ‘significantly reduces consumption of helium, which globally is in scarce supply’. Worldwide, Philips says, over 1.9 million litres of helium have been saved by MR systems equipped with its BlueSeal magnet technology since 2018.
Mark Leftwich, MD at Philips UK and Ireland, said: “Health technology can be a major driver of sustainable care for the NHS, yet nearly one in five leaders rarely or never consider environmental impact within their tendering processes. The link between human and planet health is undeniable, and technology like BlueSeal can help NHS services not only improve their carbon footprint, but also shift care from treatment to prevention, and from hospitals to community, due to its innovative design.”
Philips says the BlueSeal system’s ‘innovative design’ is also helping expand the reach of NHS and private MRI diagnostic services to locations where it was previously too difficult to install and maintain such equipment – including in remote and isolated communities. It explained: “This is due to the magnet being 900 kg lighter than a traditional system, with no added requirement for a quench pipe – a feature needed for traditional MR systems to safely expel large volumes of helium out of a building quickly in case of an emergency. The availability of helium-free MRI operations within the CDC setting can therefore enable quality care provision to patients who may otherwise not have access to advanced diagnostic scanning.”