Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Humber, Coast and Vale Cancer Alliance have launched an innovative new lung cancer screening initiative in partnership with Cobalt, EMS Healthcare and Siemens Healthineers.
The project will bring lung health checks into the hearts of communities across the city as part of a national drive by NHS England to save lives by encouraging screenings for early diagnoses.
It marks the second lung screening initiative that EMS Healthcare, a mobile medical unit provider, has supported NHS England to deliver.
Launched at Hull’s iconic KCOM Stadium, Hull residents aged between 55-74 who have a history of smoking and attend a Hull GP practice will be offered a free NHS lung health check at a mobile facility.
The latest Siemens mobile CT scanner, provided by Cobalt, is connected to EMS Healthcare’s support units, which enable the trust to offer screenings on a flexible basis and move throughout the city.
Following the stadium launch, the unit will be stationed at a supermarket carpark in a key area of the city.
It follows a recent report from Sir Mike Richard, which emphasised the need for flexibility of cancer screenings to enable the NHS to meet its target of saving 55,000 more people a year by 2030 through early diagnosis.
Bringing mobile lung CT scanners directly to sites such as supermarket carparks could genuinely save lives through early detection
The report put forward a number of recommendations to achieve this, including bringing mobile units to key community hubs – taking the clinic to the patient – and offering alternative locations for difficult-to-reach screening centres.
The initiative, hosted entirely within a mobile medical unit, is equipped with a mobile CT scanner provided by medical technology specialists Siemens Healthineers.
The unit also offers private consultation rooms, a welcome area, patient toilet facilities, a staff area, and is fully DDA compliant.
The three-trailer unit has been fitted out with an array of specialist equipment so that clinical staff are able to carry out crucial lung scans on visiting patients as well as lung function health checks.
Trish Rawnsley, programme manager of the awareness and early diagnosis programme at the Humber, Coast and Vale Cancer Alliance, said: “The lung health checks carried out in this mobile unit at carparks across the city will enable us to detect lung disease, including cancer, at an early stage, when treatments can be much more effective.
“Hull has one of the UK’s highest lung cancer mortality rates, so this mobile medical unit will allow us to reach at-risk residents, and ultimately help us to significantly improve outcomes for our patients.”
Keith Austin, chief executive of EMS Healthcare, added: “We saw from the NHS Long Term Plan that flexibility is key to engaging the community to attend vital screening appointments.
“Bringing mobile lung CT scanners directly to sites such as supermarket carparks could genuinely save lives through early detection.
“This collaboration demonstrates the value in working with other medical unit providers to benefit communities.”
