WARRINGTON'S new and expanded breast cancer screening service was officially opened yesterday, Thursday.
The expanded facilities, which can be found at Bath Street Health and Wellbeing Centre, were opened by the Mayor of Warrington, Cllr Jean Flaherty.
These new facilities are the culmination of months of work to bring together various screening services in the town into one purpose-built location.
Work has been ongoing for some time, representing a valuable investment on behalf of Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHH) and a range of other partners.
The additional clinic rooms, new mammography screening machine and extra space created for the service at Bath Street mean patients can now expect reduced waits in an extension to the existing breast screening service in the accessible town centre location.
Dawn Atherton, 'Expert by Experience' patient volunteer said: “Being invited to visit Bath Street to discuss the plans and accessible needs and having the opportunity to put forward ideas on improvements that could be made was informative and a positive step forward in ensuring a good patient experience.
“Having a state-of-the-art breast screening facility in the centre of town makes it accessible for many more people and you haven’t got the worry of visiting a hospital which can be daunting and stressful for some.
“For me personally, this development is so important as both my mum and friend are both breast cancer survivors and without screening services like this they wouldn’t be alive today.”
Warrington's new development has been supported by investment from Community Health Partnerships, Renova Developments Ltd, and funding from NHS England and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, as well as from Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Simon Constable, chief executive of WHH said: “The investment in additional breast screening capacity at Bath Street supports our ambition to deliver more outpatient services from accessible locations in the heart of our communities.
"The co-location of breast screening services, previously provided in the Victorian Kendrick Wing at Warrington Hospital, also means we are able to screen more patients, enabling us to reduce waits for screening and treatment.
"We’d like to thank all our partners, without whom the development of these fantastic new facilities would not have been possible.”
Breast screening in Warrington is co-ordinated by the Warrington, Halton, St Helens and Knowsley Breast Screening Programme, which is delivered by the team at WHH.
Screening in Warrington will continue to be provided via a mobile unit as well as within the expanded unit within Bath Street.
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