The care professionals: Endoscopy Unit

Jul 8 2008 by The Journal

A NEW drive to tackle bowel cancer is well under way and South Tyneside District Hospital now boasts state-of-the-art endoscopic equipment unrivalled elsewhere in the UK.

With an investment of £750,000 the team has equipment to improve endoscopy that helps to pinpoint the exact location of the disease using new technology such as Narrow Band Imaging.

Coupled with magnetic imaging equipment, procedures are carried out more quickly, less painfully and more successfully and increasingly cancer can be identified at an earlier stage – giving all the necessary information needed to treat the disease.

They work hard to keep waiting times at a minimum so that patients can be guaranteed to wait no longer than six weeks for endoscopy and no longer than two weeks for an urgent case.

A year ago the hospital introduced a new screening programme, as part of a National initiative, to detect bowel cancer at an earlier stage. To date more than 30,000 patients have been screened in South Tyneside, with 2% of these needing further testing using the new equipment – of these 70% showed abnormalities that could potentially develop into cancer.

Led by Dr Colin Rees Consultant Gastroenterologist the team are delighted with this major step forward in the
battle to identify and treat bowel cancer as early as possible.