CHL had to find a solution to their PET scan breaking down frequently, so a second temporary machine has been connected to the hospital via a tent, to treat more patients.
Since mid-October a provisional PET scan has been in use at CHL, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg. Thus, a larger amount of tests can be done to detect cancer early. Yet the temporary scanner is primarily meant to relieve Luxembourg’s only positron emission tomography scanner (PET), which has experienced issues numerous times this year.
The new equipment is housed in a truck parked in the hospital courtyard, connected to the main building by a heated tent. According to Grégory Gaudillot from CHL, this portable PET scan has the same capacity as the one inside the hospital. However, he notes, "We can't operate at full capacity in this temporary setup. There are fewer injection rooms, so we can only treat two patients at a time. In a permanent facility, we would have three, four, or even five rooms, allowing for a higher patient turnover."
With the new scanner, 15 patients are able to go through their tests per day, resulting in five more patients than without the provisional PET scan.
According to Grégory Gaudillot, the first machine was being overused, which led to frequent issues. With fewer tests being conducted now, it is functioning more efficiently.
“Since the beginning of the year before the installation of the truck, the first PET scan has been out of order for two days on average, which meant cancelling appointments for up to 60 patients, the breakdowns were that serious. The provisional PET scan has reduced the breakdowns to only three hours and five rescheduled patients per month.”
Nevertheless, the PET scan in the truck is just a temporary solution, the test number shave been rising since 2029. “We have had a significant increase in 77 percent, so it is extremely important”, adds Gaudillot. In the time span between January and September a total of 6,500 tests have been conducted already.
The pharmacist Grégory Gaudillot recognises two factors provoking the increase. “We have more and more requests to diagnose cancers. What has also evolved is the arrival of a new treatment in 2021, a radioactive tracer called Gallium, which helps to detect two new types of cancers: neuroendocrine tumours and prostate cancer.
A second definite apparatus to keep up the heightened test capacity has already been agreed on by the Chamber. It should be installed in the first trimester of the coming year.
Watch the report in Luxembourgish here:
