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Carestream Health announced the signing of an access agreement with the Lothian Health Board in Scotland, as part of its contract with National Services Scotland (NSS), the procurement body for NHS Scotland, for the National PACS Project. With the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary at its heart, Lothian is one of the largest health boards in Scotland and offers a range of care to the people of Edinburgh, Lothian and beyond over ten hospital sites, three of which have A&E facilities.
“NHS Lothian is delighted to commence our PACS implementation in conjunction with Carestream Health and NSS,” said Martin Egan, Director of eHealth, NHS Lothian. “The benefits to patients and clinicians alike will be significant and I look forward to the system going live on the first site towards the end of 2007, when we can start to reap the rewards of the substantial work required by all parties between now and then.”
NSS awarded the prime contract for the National PACS Project in December 2005 for CARESTREAM PACS and Information Management Solutions (IMS) to be installed at 39 hospitals within Scotland’s 15 Health Boards and connect to a further 67 satellite centres with X-ray departments. Following successful implementation across four health boards including two initial sites in Glasgow during 2006―the Southern General Hospital, which includes the Institute of Neurological Sciences and the Victoria Infirmary, and more recently Dumfries & Galloway Health Board and the Golden Jubilee National Waiting Time Centre, Clydebank―a phased rollout is well under way throughout Scotland and remains within budget. Full deployment is scheduled for 2008 and is set to manage an estimated 3.2 million exams annually.
