Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre opens to potentially save thousands of lives every year
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A new Early Diagnosis Centre is opening at Mile End Hospital on Monday 22 March.
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The dedicated facilities will help to detect disease early and will aim to boost survival rates.
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It is equipped with two endoscopy suites, two ultrasound rooms and a CT scanner. An MRI suite is planned for 2022.
A new era is beginning at Mile End Hospital with the opening of a new innovative Early Diagnosis Centre on Monday 22 March.
The Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre will provide additional services for local people who are living with conditions that could increase their risk of cancer, such as gastric ulcers and inflammatory bowel disease. These dedicated facilities will help to detect disease early and will aim to boost survival rates. The centre will also closely monitor patients with early stage cancer who do not need treatment right away.
The new service is a partnership with Barts Health, Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge University Trust and Homerton University Hospital.
The centre expects to carry out around 16,500 procedures over the next year for people across seven London boroughs.
The Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre is equipped with two endoscopy suites, two ultrasound rooms and a CT scanner. An MRI suite is planned for 2022. Initially the centre will operate from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (extending to weekends in the future).
The new service provides additional capacity for diagnostics across North East London and will free up diagnostic capacity at local hospitals for those unable to travel to Mile End giving patients greater choice when booking their appointments.
The centre will continue to be open during the pandemic to treat patients in a safe way due to the extra infection control measures in place.
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.”
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.”