Big C's boost for cancer care
A £230,000 donation from The Big C cancer charity has enabled the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to operate a new cancer-busting clinical suite.
The Big C donation has been used to set up a fourth endoscopy suite where a tiny camera is placed, via a tube, inside the patient's body to help diagnose suspected cancers and treat confirmed cancers.
The additional endoscopy suite is used by doctors and nurses to perform a variety of procedures and has led to a reduction in waiting times for the investigation of possible upper and lower gastro-intestinal cancers.
The hospital's third endoscopy suite was opened last year and the new Big C suite is expected to help continue bringing waiting times down. Recent expansions in the endoscopy service have led to a fall in waiting times drop compared with three or four years ago. A routine gastroscopy wait has fallen from 26 weeks over that time to around four-to-six weeks. The wait for a routine colonoscopy has also dropped from around eight months to two months over that period.
- The Big C donation has purchased:
- An endoscopy stack control system
- Four gastroscopes
- Two colonoscopes
- Three vital sign monitors
- One scope cleaning machine
In recent years the Big C has also funded or part-funded an endoscopic ultrasound used for assessing oesophageal cancer, and an argon plasma coagulation unit for treatment of pre-cancerous colonic polyps.
Dr Richard Tighe, consultant gastroenterologist, said; “We are indebted to the Big C for their very generous help in establishing a fourth endoscopic suite here at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. This tremendous facility allows us to treat many more patients and is helping bring waiting times for some cancer patients down.”
The Big C Appeal is a Norfolk-based charity raising and spending money locally for the fight against cancer.
Big C chairman Philip Blanchflower said: “We are very pleased to be able to fund this initiative at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and it's all thanks to the sterling efforts of local fundraisers. The Big C works very hard to fund cancer-beating projects in Norfolk and north Suffolk, this is a good example of the dividends locally-based charity brings to cancer patients.”