Diagnostics & Imaging

The Hamptons Hospital offering

• Fast access
• Professional care
• Latest technology
• Expert diagnosis
• Rapid results
• Treatment guidance

Fast and Accurate Diagnosis

Our brand-new Diagnostic Imaging Suite is equipped with the latest technology, and staffed by experienced healthcare professionals to provide the detailed results you need to support your further treatment options.

Types of Diagnostic Imaging:

• X-rays: These use radiation to create images of different body parts. X-rays are commonly used for dental radiography, detecting chest infections, and assessing bone health.
• CT (Computed Tomography) Scanning: CT scans provide detailed cross-sectional images of organs and tissues. They are valuable for diagnosing conditions like tumors, fractures, and internal bleeding.
• Ultrasound: This technique uses sound waves to visualize soft tissues, organs, and blood flow. It’s commonly used during pregnancy and to examine abdominal organs.

The latest Diagnostic Imaging Equipment

Our Diagnostic Imaging Department is equipped with the latest technology for a wide variety of clinical investigations.

X-rays: These use radiation to create images of different body parts. X-rays are commonly used for dental radiography, detecting chest infections, and assessing bone health

Our friendly and professional radiography team provide a safe and efficient service; and our expert radiologists are focused on providing you with fast and accurate results.

• CT (Computed Tomography) Scanning: CT scans provide detailed cross-sectional images of organs and tissues. They are valuable for diagnosing conditions like tumours, fractures, and internal bleeding.

Our radiology team provide care and support to ensure your comfort during CT examination.

The CT room also features a Sky Factory LED ceiling offering  up calm and relaxing digital views of the sky.

• Ultrasound: This technique uses sound waves to visualize soft tissues, organs, and blood flow. It’s commonly used during pregnancy and to examine abdominal organs.

The Hamptons Hospital also offers fast access to:

DEXA (Bone Density) Scanning

Dual energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) is considered the most highly developed and most thoroughly validated technique for assessing bone mineral density, according to the World Health Organization's report on the "Prevention and Management of Osteoporosis." It can help you diagnose osteoporosis, predict fractures, and monitor response to treatment.

There are significant benefits to you from getting the right diagnosis and treatment. To make sure you get the right examination your healthcare professional will ask you about your medical history, explain the options available and discuss what is most important to you.

If medical imaging is needed, they will send a request to an imaging specialist. This specialist will check the request and make sure that you get the best imaging examination for you. Imaging examinations are not always needed and so in some cases, you may proceed straight to treatment.

Procedures and Tests available

Include:

CT scanning

• CT Coronary Angiogram (Heart examination)
• CT Heartscan™ (CT Calcium Scoring)
• CT Guided Injections for Pain Management (future)
• CT Chest abdomen and Pelvis
• CT TAVI Scans

Contrast studies

Use of radio-opaque injection to enhance X-rays.

• Intravenous Urograms (IVU)

Dexa Scanning

• Bone Density - Osteoporosis Screening

Ultrasound scanning

• Abdominal scan eg for liver, pancreas, gall bladder or kidney concerns
• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening
• Breast Ultrasound
• Heart scans (Echo cardiology)
• Musculoskeletal and soft tissue scans
• Pelvic ultrasound eg Gynaecology and Bladder health
• Vascular scans with Doppler eg vein health

X-Ray Plain Films

• Chest X Ray
• Orthopaedic/Musculo skeletal/Bones and Joints

Other procedures are available – please check if your test is not listed.

Your Test Explained

What is Radiology?

Diagnostic radiology uses imaging techniques, such as X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and ultrasound to look inside your body to assess or diagnose disease and injury. You’ll usually be referred to us for an imaging appointment following a referral from your GP or hospital Consultant.

What is an X-ray?

A diagnostic X-ray uses a low dose of radiation to see inside your body to help diagnose many conditions often in bones and joints. It can also be useful to look at problems affecting soft tissue.

Further information on X-ray safety

Not all diagnostic imaging techniques use ionizing radiation, but X-rays remain an important examination to help identify and pinpoint health conditions.

Risks Vs Benefits

We are all exposed to small doses of natural background ionizing radiation from natural sources all the time — in particular, cosmic radiation, mainly from the sun, and radon, comes from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, water, and building materials. Each medical X-ray examination gives us a small additional dose on top of this natural background radiation.

Table 1 tells you how much radiation you are likely to get from different types of X-ray examination and how this may affect your cancer risk as every exposure carries a small risk of causing cancer many years or decades later. This however needs to be put into perspective as we are all at risk of developing cancer during our lifetime. The normal risk is that this will happen to about 50% of people at some point in their life.

How much radiation will I receive? The dose, you receive is equivalent to something between a few days and a few years of background radiation. All doses are kept as low as possible whilst ensuring that the images obtained are of diagnostic quality.

All our x-ray equipment is routinely maintained and subject to quality assurance tests. New technology is focused on the lowest possible radiation dose. The radiology department works to very strict protocols and policies to ensure high standards of practice and safety.

TABLE 1

Patient dose information: guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There is a risk from not proceeding with an X-ray examination that your doctor has requested. We have to balance the risk of not knowing what is wrong, and doctors not being able to treat you, which is likely to be a greater risk to your health than the radiation risk.