Our Trust has speeded up the early stages of pathway for suspected prostate cancer patients and seen a huge reduction in days waiting for a diagnosis.

This has been achieved by working together by teams from ultra-sound and urology and we thank them for a fantastic new service for our patients..

Previously a patient's their out-patient  (o/p) appointment with a consultant, any further tests required including MRI and a Trust Biopsy had to be ordered - which meant extra time waiting.

We have now aligned the consultant o/p appointment and the tests to the same day which means, over all, our patients’ time from GP to diagnosis has reduced from 30 to seven days.

Once the tests come back they are considered by a multi-disciplinary team to decide next steps.

General manager Jason Bushby said "We have previously speeded up these stages for breast care and Upper GI patients, so we thought we need to tackle prostate pathway too"

The acceleration of the process means reduced stress and time spent not-knowing for our patients. It means they can be reassured or start treatment much earlier. Around 60 patients a month are referred to our urology consultants and around half may start the pathway.

Jason added "The whole team has worked really well together to create this new pathway for patients".