Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell and Newquay, has welcomed the announcement that from later this month, a new breast cancer clinic will be available at Treliske Hospital.
In 2018/19 a total of 42,000 people were seen by Royal Cornwall Hospital’s breast services, which includes 25,000 women through the screening assessments as part of the National Breast Screening Programme.
For the Mermaid Centre to continue to provide its recognised gold standard service and see all new breast referrals within two weeks, the service has embarked upon a modernisation initiative to ensure the smooth-running of referrals into a more responsive clinic framework.
This is in order to maintain the ability to see all people who have symptoms in the Mermaid Centre within the two weeks of referral. This service redesign has been achieved through a full collaborative approach between clinicians and commissioners and has been endorsed by Public Health England.
From Monday, May 13, GPs will be able to refer lower risk people to an additional clinic. Shorter waits and a more efficient service will be good news for patients across Cornwall.
Commenting, Steve said:
“Breast cancer is a terrible disease and we need to do all we can to fight it.”
“This additional clinic will mean more people get to access this vital service quicker, giving them earlier support where needed and a better chance to fight against breast cancer.”
“This follows a string of millions of pounds of recent additional funding for our main hospital in Cornwall from the Government and I will continue to do all I can, along with my Cornish MP colleagues, to ensure we keep getting our fair share of the national allocation.”