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RESIDENTS of Lithgow and surrounding areas will continue to have access to state of the art diagnostic services following the renewal of the contract at Lithgow Hospital for Alfred Imaging.
It was an important development that made Lithgow the envy of many bigger centres when Alfred Imaging first won the contract to provide services at Lithgow Hospital seven years ago.
At the launch the local medical profession was impressed with what was taking these sophisticated services to a whole new level in Lithgow.
Since that time the Lithgow Hospital imaging department has grown not only in the volume of patients but in the level of services that had not previously been available in the local area.
The status of Alfred Imaging is reflected in the fact that it is also part of the precinct of medical services surrounding Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Now the service at Lithgow is to continue and may even be expanded.
Importantly the service includes a 24/7 around the clock diagnostic imaging service every day of the year.
This includes X Ray, CT scans and ultrasound.
When experienced radiologists are on site interventional procedures including biopsies, aspiration, drainages and the like are performed at Lithgow Hospital.
Prior to the advent of Alfred Imaging patients were required to travel to metropolitan centres for the same procedures.
During the seven years that AMI has been providing the Lithgow service there has been a 75 per cent increase in the volume of hospital based radiology.
More patients are therefore being diagnosed and treated in their local community.
Statistically even more impressive is the 300 per cent increase in the number of interventional procedures at the hospital since 2008.
Spokesman for AMI, Senan Nagaratnam, said his organisation had also implemented a high end diagnostic and interventional CT — in layman’s terms a Cat Scan — to support the needs of the hospital and the community.
This did not exist prior to 2008.
Another important development for the health of Lithgow residents was the implementation of information technology infrastructure that gives patients and doctors access to a high quality reporting service equal or often greater than what is available in tertiary referral hospitals.
Mr Nagaratnam said AMI has developed strong community relationships and feedback from patients and healthcare providers has been extremely positive.
Alfred Imaging is independently owned and operated by a consortium of 30 radiologists and nuclear imaging specialists.
It is regarded as a market leader in the provision of its specialised services which are also regarded as ‘world class’ — an all important asset for Lithgow and the region indeed.
“We believe that over the past few years we have proven ourselves to have worked tirelessly in achieving the goals we set ourselves for Lithgow,” Mr Nagaratnam said.