Issue - meetings

Report attached.

The proposed North East London Cancer Early Diagnosis Centre was aimed at patients who required repeated cancer screening procedures. The centre, which was due to open in May 2020, would support a personalised care approach whilst supporting best practice.

A construction company had been commissioned and building work was about to start. The location of the site had to be within budget and a non-acute site was also required and it was therefore felt that Mile End was the only location that met all the criteria.

Members were concerned however that too many resources were being put into the Tower Hamlets area at the expense of Outer North East London boroughs. Officers responded that early diagnosis rates were higher in Outer London than e.g. Tower Hamlets and that the new facility would allow the sharing of good practice. This would allow hospitals in North East London to support each other to deliver capacity. It was also hoped to establish a similar centre in Outer North East London. An officer from the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust added that the Trust had been involved in the development of the facility and the new Centre may allow BHRIT to perform more endoscopies or similar procedures in its own unit.

The Joint Committee noted the position.