Since 2006, all patients aged 60 to 69 are eligible for bowel screening which involves being offered a test to take at home and sending samples for analysis.
About two in every 100 patients screened require further investigation, which is usually a colonoscopy examination of the lower bowel conducted in a hospital endoscopy department.
Weston’s Endoscopy Department had to undergo an assessment by a panel of experts from the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on Endoscopy to qualify to carry out these investigations.
Staff worked hard on providing information showing the high standard of the care given in the department and evidence of patient satisfaction to pass the assessment.
It means that patients from North Somerset can now have the post-screening colonoscopy conducted in Weston, instead of having to travel to Bristol as previously.
Weston Area Health NHS Trust Chief Executive Lorene Read said: “We are delighted to have been able to show the JAG team how efficiently our Endoscopy Department works and how pleasant the patients find the environment there, which was refurbished in 2008.
“It is very pleasing for a smaller hospital to be able to participate so fully in the National Bowel Screening Programme and to be able to offer this service closer to home for North Somerset patients.”
For further information, please contact Caroline Welch on 01934 647091