One Stop Breast Clinic at WCH to re-open on 11th January 2021

We have had the fantastic news this morning that the One Stop Breast Clinic at West Cumberland Hospital is to re-open on 11th January.

There was a special meeting of the West Cumbria Community Forum at which this was discussed (I was unable to attend as it clashed with a meeting of the Cumbria Pensions Committee which I am attending today (and posting this during a ten-minute comfort break) but I see from emails circulated about it that it was a good meeting.

NCIC has issued a press release on the subject this morning which reads as follows:

One stop breast clinic restarts in the New Year

 

Breast care clinicians at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) have confirmed the one stop breast clinic at West Cumberland Hospital will restart in the New Year.     It will return to the West Cumberland Hospital with a full range of services week commencing 11th January 2021.  The clinic will initially run with 15 slots every fortnight with the hope of adding additional slots to the clinic in the future.   The Trust paused the clinic earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, compounded by the issues of recruitment.   However the Trust has now successfully secured the planned international recruitment which enables the restart with further opportunities in the months ahead.     In addition to this, the Trust will continue to run pilot clinics for the lower risk referrals that do not normally require a radiologist that have been in place throughout November and December. These imaging clinics will continue weekly and will prevent low risk patients having to travel unnecessarily to the Cumberland Infirmary.    Dr Rod Harpin, Medical Director at NCIC attended two local community forums to discuss the reasons why the one stop breast clinic had been paused, earlier on this year and had committed to reinstating the clinic as soon as it was safe to do so.  The forum allowed local community representatives to express their concerns and for NCIC to gather valuable feedback.   Dr Harpin is pleased that the Trust is now in a position to restart the clinics, explaining:   “For some time, we have been working hard behind the scenes to recruit the specific clinicians required to serve the one stop breast clinic; and the safe reopening of the clinic has remained a priority to us. I’m happy to report that we are now in a position to restart the clinic, with ambitions to develop it into the New Year to ensure we can deliver safe high quality treatment to women as close to their homes as possible.”