Endoscopy unit opens with £3.5m investment

A £3.5 MILLION investment has been secured to ensure endoscopy patients can be seen sooner than planned.

Leicester’s hospitals secured the cash for improvements which including opening the temporary “vanguard” endoscopy unit at Leicester’s General hospital.

It means routine patients, as well as suspected cancer and clinically urgent patients, can be screened and referred for treatment as soon as possible, despite the continued pressures of Covid-19 and winter.

Before March, endoscopy services at the city’s hospitals were performing procedures with more than 600 patients a week, but due to the pandemic it has not been possible to see this number of patients.

A lack of capacity can mean patients self-managing a range of sometimes uncomfortable physical symptoms, while wondering if those symptoms are a sign of a life-altering health condition.

However, thanks to what is thought to be one of the largest NHS investments in endoscopy services this year, the hospital trust will deliver a month-on-month capacity improvement from this month.

By March 2021, this will exceed pre-pandemic levels. Initial improvements began with the endoscopy unit, while extensive work to refurbish endoscopy rooms at the General, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield begins from January.

The opening of the unit will also coincide with the increased use of community sites at Loughborough, Hinckley, Melton and Market Harborough which will continue into 2021 and beyond, enabling more patients to be seen closer to home, whilst still remaining in the care of UHL clinicians.