A new early diagnosis centre has been opened in Mile End, East London today and is hoped to increase early detection services.
The new centre is located at the Mile End Hospital run by NHS Barts Trust. The new centre is equipped with two endoscopy suites and a new MRI suite is planned for 2020.
The service is aimed at local people who are living with conditions that could increase their risk of cancer, such as gastric ulcers and inflammatory bowel disease, and the centre will also be used to monitor and support patients with cancer who are in the early stages of treatment.
Barts Health has been the driving force behind the new centre, representing a new partnership between Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge University Trust and Homerton University Hospital. The centre is expected to carry out 16,500 procedures a year to help boost survival rates.
Two ultrasound rooms and two CT scans are also fitted, and the intial plans are for the centre to open from Monday – Friday, with ambitions for the centre to open over the weekend.
Due to the ongoing pandemic extra infection control measures have been taken so the centre can be fully operational even in the pandemic.
Jackie Sullivan, chief executive at The Royal London Hospital, said: “I’m delighted to see this exciting and innovative new facility at the Mile End Hospital opened. It will offer a vital service for people across North East London and I’d like to thank the partner teams for all their work making this a reality.”
With the addition of the new centre, patients now have a greater choice of care across the East London area and ease capacity across hospital sites.
Angela Wong, a gastroenterologist and clinical lead for the service, said: “The EDC has been specifically designed to undertake scans, tests and surveillance safely and efficiently under one roof, completely separate to A&E and urgent care services. More people are being diagnosed with cancer following a visit to A&E, and many of these cancers are at a later stage, reducing the chance of survival. Our aim is to reduce variation in how cancers are diagnosed across north east London and ultimately speed up the path to treatment, potentially saving thousands of lives every year.”
