ENT department at Bart's has recently opened a one-stop 'lump and bump' clinic for fast-track investigation of everything from thyroid tumours to cysts on the skin
The Ear, Nose and Throat Department of St Bartholomew's Hospital in London has recently opened a one-stop 'lump and bump' clinic for fast-track investigation of everything from thyroid tumours to cysts on the skin.
Michael Dilkes, the consultant ENT surgeon behind the new clinic, is very enthusiastic about the improved service the new clinic offers to patients: "My particular interest in ENT is head and neck tumour surgery and about 90% of all head and neck tumours that present in a new patient, for example, as a lump in the neck, can be fully assessed with ultrasound and aspiration cytology.
Our new clinic is equipped with a new HDI 3500 ultrasound system from Philips Ultrasound to assess the lump as well as guiding the biopsy needles.
A cytologist in the clinic can then take a look at the cells immediately and tell us what it is that we're dealing with, and the patient can go straight on to the waiting list for surgery or be discharged home depending on the diagnosis.
Instead of patients waiting weeks for results, everything is done in one sitting and this means less worry for the patients and less time for tumours to grow even more." According to Mr Dilkes, the choice of ultrasound system was not difficult.
"We had a look at other manufacturers, but what we wanted was quality.
The HDI 3500 gave us the best definition and it is pretty easy to use as well.
We are only the second clinic of this kind in the country, but as pressure grows to reduce patient waiting times I can see that there will be more and more demand for this kind of streamlined service."
