A NEW cancer unit opens at Lytham Hospital next week and it should take around 500 patients a year off the waiting list at beleaguered Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde Community Health Trust is opening a sigmoidoscopy unit at Lytham - to test out-patients for the possibility of colo-rectal cancer.

The newly-refurbished 13-space Fisher Unit will carry out the procedure on Tuesdays and Fridays, adding to its busy weekly timetable of general, orthopaedic, dental and foot surgery.

The move reflects the increasing use of community hospitals like Lytham for day-care as more procedures are carried out without general anaesthetic.

Unit manager Karen Friendship said: "We've worked hard to make the ward a bright, comfortable, friendly environment for patients in a way only a small community hospital can be, but we also realised we were entering a new era and wanted to be ready." Victoria Hospital's gastro-enterology nursing sister, June Bailey, provided training and the NW Lancashire Health Authority paid for state-of-the-art endoscopic equipment. Trust chief executive Philip Scully believes community hospitals now have a crucial role to play in reducing waiting lists for essential out-patients' diagnostic treatments: "That's why the Trust is so committed to developing and expanding our seven community hospitals," he said.

A link nurse will explain the procedure to patients and tell them how to prepare for it, giving them an appointment within four days. As far as possible the same nurse will be there to meet them for the test: "Having the same team-member caring for you and being in a familiar setting and environment, will go a long way to removing some of the inevitable anxiety," said Karen Friendship.

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