At a meeting of Bromley Council’s Development Control Committee in January, Councillors voted to allow planning permission for a new Endoscopy Unit at the Princess Royal University (PRU) hospital.
The new unit will help to reduce wait times for local cancer patients, speed up diagnostic time and improve the patient experience, while also offering training opportunities in the area. Some of the improvements the new unit will offer include:
- A 5% increase in the number of endoscopies each year; about 2000 extra procedures a year
- Improve training opportunities: with a new training centre in the new unit and will be part of London Endoscopy Training Academy
- Improve patient experience; reduce waiting times, avoids travel to central London for many of the procedures which will be done locally, inclusion of a room for breaking bad news so patients coming in are not seeing other patients distressed, as well as separate male and female recovery spaces to improve patient dignity.
- More therapeutic interventions to be undertaken; a new unit to provide therapeutic procedures safely and offer twice as much capacity at the PRU.
The new unit will be funded by a £20million investment from the Government.
Member of Parliament for Beckenham, Bob Stewart, welcomed the decision saying:
“I am delighted that the committee voted to allow permission for this important site to be built. Cancer is still a huge killer in the country and catching it early saves lives, which is why this new unit so important for the entire borough.”
Councillor David Jefferys, Chairman of the Bromley Health & Wellbeing Board added:
“Securing £20 million investment for a new endoscopy unit at the PRU was a major achievement by our local NHS team and the recent planning approval means this game changing development will become a reality. The six new endoscopy theatres will accelerate diagnosis rates in Bromley and mean that cancers can be detected earlier. Increasingly endoscopy is used for treatment and with such local facilities Bromley patients should benefit as medical science progresses. This is a big win for patients’ individual patients in the borough and for public health in Bromley.”
