Hope for Tomorrow partners with Cobalt Health to launch new mobile targeted lung health check facility in Manchester.
A unique charitable partnership between two charity leaders in mobile cancer care will bring NHS services for life-saving early detection of lung cancer into the heart of at-risk communities in Manchester.
Hope for Tomorrow, the charity dedicated to creating new spaces for accessible cancer care services, is launching a brand-new £500,000 purpose-built mobile unit designed to integrate with a mobile CT scan facility from Cobalt, the leading provider of lung cancer screening services in the UK.
Due to be operational by summer 2024, the new state-of-the-art mobile space will bring cancer care and targeted lung health services into higher-risk communities and collectively deliver up to 30,000 lung checks per year.
Members of Cobalt, WH Bence Coachworks, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Hope for Tomorrow CEO, Tina Seymour.
The collaboration will support the continued efforts by the NHS Targeted Lung Health Check programme which aims to screen and diagnose lung cancer at an earlier stage, when treatment has significantly better health outcomes.
Situated in the heart of Greater Manchester, the fully accessible mobile space will address health inequalities in the region and target hard-to-reach communities and areas of deprivation locally, supporting the current NHS Core20PLUS5 targets.
“The purpose of establishing this innovative partnership is two-fold,” explains Tina Seymour, Chief Executive of Hope for Tomorrow. “By creating mobile spaces dedicated to lung cancer screening, we can simultaneously create additional much-needed capacity for our partners and bring cancer screening and diagnosis closer into communities.
This presents an exceptional opportunity to increase screening take-up and improve the health outcomes for many thousands of people.
Consisting of six consulting rooms, a reception area, a kitchen and WC facilities, the Hope for Tomorrow unit will enable the delivery of up to 100 general health screening assessments per day. Those identified as at risk will be offered a CT scan at the adjoining Cobalt facility within the same appointment, with patients being notified of their results within four weeks and placed on an appropriate pathway, if needed.
Staffed by a team of NHS oncology experts, the mobile units will support participation in the screening programme targeting smokers and ex-smokers aged 55-74 in Greater Manchester, aiming to accelerate the NHS plan to improve early detection and survival for those diagnosed with cancer.
Lung Cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with one of the worst survival rates, largely due to late-stage diagnosis when treatment is less likely to be effective.
Detecting lung cancer in the early stages is difficult as people often don’t experience any symptoms and are not diagnosed until stage 3 or 4. However, screening improves patient outcomes with around 6 in 10 people surviving for 5 years or more if they’re diagnosed early. This falls to less than 1 in 10 people if diagnosed at a later stage.
An existing screening unit
The integrated unit will operate six days a week, 12 hours per day with the scope to replicate the screening facility in other communities in the future.
