Scottish Executive Awards Varian Major Contract

Varian Medical Systems has been awarded a contract to supply eight TrueBeam treatment systems to hospitals in Scotland along with two Clinac® iX linear accelerators, ancillary equipment and software. The new equipment will replace ageing treatment machines at hospitals in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. “This is a major replacement program aimed at refreshing our stock of radiotherapy treatment machines across Scotland,” says NHS National Services Scotland’s Procurement Manager (Equipping and Technical) and project lead John Slater. The project also includes third party products and construction services; “We looked at the needs of all five centres and wrapped them into a turnkey, consolidated project for greater efficiency,” he added. Gary Currie, medical physicist at West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow, adds, “These new machines represent the latest in linear accelerator technology and they will enable Scotland’s radiotherapy departments to introduce cutting-edge treatments for the benefit of the country’s cancer patients. There are currently twenty-five treatment machines in Scotland and this project involves replacing ten of them with advanced new systems.”

He said clinicians in Scotland aim to offer advanced image-guided RapidArc® intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatments to 30% of patients within 12-18 months. IMRT enables dose to be delivered more precisely to the tumour than systems without IMRT and reduces dose to healthy tissue. RapidArc was designed for fast and precise IMRT delivery less than two minutes including targeting of tumours that move during treatment as the patient breathes in and out, the company said. “This is an ambitious nationwide project and we are delighted that Scottish hospitals have recognised the benefits of investing in new technologies such as TrueBeam to deliver the latest techniques such as Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) and radiosurgery in an efficient and cost effective way, benefitting patients across Scotland” said David Scott, Varian’s UK sales director.