Lower Costs And Improved Service At VRCC

VRCC the Veterinary Referral Centre in Essex that is ‘The most advanced Private Centre in Europe for the treatment of Cancer in Dogs and Cat’s is continuing it’s policy of substantial investment in facilities, staff and equipment. Just a year after VRCC’s 6 million volt Linear Accelerator went on-line and currently the only Veterinary Radiotherapy Facility available in the UK, VRCC have installed what is believed to be the first New ‘Human’ CT Scanner in a UK Private Small Animal Veterinary Centre at a cost of almost £1/2m. The CT Scanner, a ‘New’ state-of-the-art multi-leaf Siemens SOMATOM produces superb images in just a few seconds and has just been installed on-site at VRCC’s 12,000sqft purpose designed Referral Centre that for maximum efficiency has all it’s staff and facilities under one roof. VRCC’s Clinical Director Dr Susan M North is looking forward to being able to offer improved services to her clients. ‘Like every other Private Practice in the UK before we installed our New Siemens scanner we travelled off-site for scans with 3 staff members early in the morning or late at night. A procedure that was inconvenient, time consuming and very expensive with costs to clients before any treatment, of around £1,000.00. Fortunately when we purchased our site just over 5 years ago we planned and budgeted for just such a CT installation as we have now. We have just opened-up an upper level reached by a new lift taking just a few seconds from our ‘Prep. Room’ to our new Ultrasound and CT Scanning Suites. (By moving our Ultrasound Suite to the upper level we have been able to enlarge our Prep. Room by about 50%.) The lift will comfortably and smoothly take 2 staff, a very large patient on a trolley and an anaesthetic machine if necessary. (Also, on this level is a large and well-appointed Staff/Lecture Room.) Dr North continues…we took the decision to install The Siemens SOMATOM because we believe that a CT Scan will be the procedure of choice for over 90% of our clients that require a scan. A procedure that we will now be able to perform in minimal time causing less stress to our patients and at a cost of about half our current charges, bringing this often vital form of diagnosis within the reach of many more clients and leaving more of their budget for all important treatments.’ Apart from routine scans required by all the clinicians at the Centre, VRCC take Referrals in Medicine, Surgery and Oncology, VRCC’s CT will also be used in conjunction with their Linear Accelerator, planning sophisticated Cancer treatments previously not available before in the UK. Another first for VRCC is the appointment of Tom Jackson BSc Radiography (T) a Therapeutic Radiographer who has joined VRCC from Guys & St Thomas Westminster, a centre of excellence in Oncology. Tom will be working at VRCC under the direction of Dr North, who is the most highly qualified and experienced Veterinary Oncologist in the UK and the only qualified Radiation Veterinary Oncologist in the UK. Tom Jackson qualified at The Beatson Oncology Centre, Glasgow, moving from there to The Royal Marsden in London and more recently rising to a senior position at Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Trust, Westminster, all Centres of Excellence in Human Cancer Treatment. Susan, Tom and the rest of the VRCC Oncology Team are looking forward to working together increasing awareness in Cancer Treatments and increasing the range of proven treatments available. VRCC is continuing to move Cancer Treatment forward in the UK.

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