The Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre
The Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre
Barts Health, Barking Havering and Redbridge University Trust and Homerton University Hospital have worked in partnership to create a new, innovative Early Diagnosis Centre at Mile End Hospital.
The Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre is one of the first of its kind nationally. Its focus is to improve early diagnosis across the whole of north east London by having dedicated cancer surveillance capacity as well as the close monitoring of patients with conditions that increase their risk of developing cancer.
View our patient information page for useful resources including a location map and short film to introduce the services.
Background
Even before Covid-19, we needed to think about how to reduce the backlog of endoscopy services, future proof it and build a centre of excellence.
The need for this was even more clear during Covid. Endoscopy services were stood down at the start of the pandemic. Only 17% of pre-covid services were carried out, which were emergency only.
The solution was to develop a centre of excellence to carry out surveillance and diagnostics work, away from an emergency care setting. One which allowed patients more choice over appointments and yet retained consistency of service from specialist staff who could deliver the same levels of service both at the centre and at local sites. At the same time, this would allow us to protect against Covid-19 and run services in safe, covid-protected areas called green zones.
Key to making this happen was getting patients on board from the start of our journey. And they have been with us all the way: providing challenge, feedback and creativity.
The result is the Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre.
Vision
Our vision for the Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre is ”to provide specialist, person-centred diagnostic care for people in north east London. It will offer patients a consistent quality of service and a greater choice over where and when they receive their treatment”
Where is it?
The full address is: Early Diagnosis Centre, Mile End Hospital, Bancroft Road, London E1 4DG
Services
The Early Diagnosis Centre services include endoscopy, ultrasound and CT scan, with MRI planned for 2022. The Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre is open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with a view to extending this to the weekend, giving patients more options around times and appointments.
Who is it for?
These services are for local people in north east London with conditions that increase their risk of developing cancer, as well as monitoring patients with early stage cancer who do not need treatment right away. These conditions include things such as;
- Liver conditions
- Gastric Ulcers
- Gastric intestinal metaplasia
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
- Polyps (pre-cancerous lumps)
- Post Cancer surveillance
The London boroughs we cover are;
- Barking & Dagenham
- City of London
- Hackney
- Havering
- Newham
- Rebridge
- Tower Hamlets
- Waltham Forest
Benefits for patients
- Greater choice and flexibility of appointments
- Broader range of specialist services in one place
- Consistent quality of service
The centre is safe from Covid-19 and will continue to be open during the pandemic to treat patients in a safe way due to the extra measures in place.