Latest news with #RoyalBerkshire
BBC News
26-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
New radiotherapy machines set to speed cancer treatment
Thousands of cancer patients will receive faster treatment thanks to new "state-of-the-art" radiotherapy machines, the government has every region in the country, 28 hospitals, including ones managed by the Royal Berkshire and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts, are to receive the cutting-edge equipment. The Department of Health & Social Care said that by March 2027, "up to 27,500 additional treatments per year will be delivered, including up to 4,500 receiving their first treatment for cancer within 62-days of referral".The machines will be rolled out from August, funded by a £70m investment as part of the plans to improve cancer care. The government said the new linear accelerator (LINAC) machines would replace the older ones, saving "save as many as 13,000 appointments from being lost to equipment breakdown".It said the new machines were "safer for patients" and "can more precisely target tumours".The technology is being prioritised in hospitals which are currently using outdated treatment machines older than 10 Secretary Wes Streeting said that as a cancer survivor, "I know just how important timely treatment is"."There is a revolution taking place in medical technology which can transform treatment for cancer patients," Mr Streeting said."But NHS hospitals are forced to use outdated, malfunctioning equipment thanks to 14 years of underinvestment under the previous government."By reducing the number of hospital visits required and preventing cancelled appointments, these state of the art radiotherapy machines free up capacity so that thousands more patients are treated on time."The investment follows on from the government rolling out 13 new bone density scanners across the country which will allow 29,000 extra bone scans delivered per government said that "over 3 million appointments have already been delivered since the end of June 2024, smashing the government's target of delivering 2 million extra operations, scans and appointments."It added that "significant work" was being carried out to get cancers diagnosed "more quickly than ever before".A full list on the trusts receiving an upgraded scanner is available on the government website. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MP and hospital staff meet minister over rebuild
An MP, hospital staff and patients met a health minister to discuss what can be done to maintain a Berkshire hospital that will not be rebuilt until at least 2037. Parts of the Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) in Reading are nearly 200-years-old, 95% of its lifts are beyond the end of their life and operations are regularly cancelled. RBH staff were previously told the hospital might have been replaced in 2031 but in January health secretary Wes Streeting said it will only be replaced between 2037 and 2039. Wokingham MP Clive Jones and senior staff including the hospital's chief strategy officer, Andy Statham, met health minister Karin Smyth on Wednesday. Jones said the meeting was "very productive" and that Smyth had pledged to help the hospital. "It's going to cost £300m to £400m over the next 10 years keep the estate going and we wanted to come up with a few ideas to make sure that we can keep the hospital going in reasonable condition," Jones said . "The repairs that we need, they have got to happen. They cannot be instead of a new hospital. We're bursting out of the seams of the hospital. "And in the next few years we are going to have so many more people to treat because health treatments are going to be improving an awful lot." Earlier this year, RBH bosses warned they were "losing the battle" against a constant need for repairs. Fifty operations were cancelled in 18 months due to estate disrepair, including power cuts, leaking roofs and collapsed ceilings. "We have got some really old buildings at the Royal Berkshire, some of which will be coming up to nearly 200-years-old. Every day we have challenges in providing safe care which our teams work really valiantly to do," Mr Statham said. "It's a difficult situation we know the minister's in. Their resources are really tight in the public sector at the moment and we understand the position. That doesn't mean that what we need is any less. "I think we got a real recognition of the challenges of what our patients face and our staff face but also a challenge to us: how can we think differently and how we can make use of community care, digital care, in order to manage things a bit differently in the future. "We're doing everything we can to provide high quality care for our patients in Berkshire." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Hospital's maintenance bill could hit £400m Planned £1.6bn Berkshire hospital rebuild delayed Major hospital relocation plans put to public New hospital could be built in five years, boss says Hospital should move to new site - trust chief Royal Berkshire NHS Trust
Sky News
13-02-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Health anxiety - not emergencies - clogging up A&E, doctors warn
It's rare access. To allow Sky News cameras into a hospital as it struggles through another winter crisis. How did we know there would be one when we began filming in early December? Easy. There's a crisis every winter in the NHS. And we knew it would be bad, but didn't know quite how bad. That was the issue we wanted to explore. We always know winter is coming and that hospitals, in this case the Royal Berkshire in Reading, like almost every acute site in England, will struggle. But as this is a given, surely there must be a way of preventing it from happening again and again? The answers, straight from the mouths of the some of the hospital's most experienced frontline clinicians, are surprising. Some are shocking. Dr Omar Nafousi is the clinical lead at Royal Berkshire's A&E, one of the busiest in the southeast of England. He's worked here for years and says this winter is the "busiest by far". And the reason? Because the emergency department waiting room has been full of people who simply do not need to be there, Dr Nafousi says. He explains: "I see people who don't need to be here, I see people who need to be here but have come here a bit late, I've seen people who are just concerned, I see people sent by their friends because their friends are concerned, there's a combination of all this. "There's a lot of anxiety after COVID and we've seen that. "Young people with chest pain which they've had for a few minutes and are concerned they've had a heart attack. "There's a lot of little things which before would have been nothing but now are something." In other words, Dr Nafousi wants his department to deal with real emergencies. The people who do not need to be there are driving up the patient numbers - and wait times. The A&E's doors are always open. Patients who cannot turn to another service, or wait to be seen, turn up here. They do so knowing that sooner, or usually much later, they will receive medical care. But that could all change. If Dr Nafousi's comments seem controversial, his A&E colleague Dr Jane Brenchley, also a consultant and clinical lead, has views that make for even more difficult reading. She believes the time will soon come when A&E doors will no longer be open to anyone and everyone. "As other services fall apart, or are perceived to be more difficult to access, more people end up here because it's just the easy option," she says. "You know if you turn up, you'll be seen. We may get to the stage where actually we're just looking at people and saying, 'This isn't an emergency'." You don't usually hear senior clinicians saying this. They might think it privately but rarely voice these views in TV interviews. These views about anxiety and the "walking well" are echoed by the hospital's partners in primary care. Dr Amit Sharma runs four surgeries near the hospital. He shows me data that points to a post-pandemic surge in demand for GP appointments. Pointing to a line on a graph on his laptop, he explains: "November 2018 you can see it was around 27 or 28 million, and here you can see last month, it's peaking almost at 40 million." I ask him what's driving it. "That's got to be around anxiety, that's what we see every day. People are more fearful and anxious about their health." It's not just people who are more aware of their health, I ask. "Awareness, absolutely," he replies. "And some of that awareness is needed to capture cancers etc. "But I think what our concern is, is that we're seeing young people coming in actually with self-limiting illnesses or symptoms that are physical related to mental health conditions." These frank observations will be hard for patients to digest. Especially those who can't get to see their GP or have to wait for hours in A&E. Yes, it's true this winter has been extremely difficult with flu, norovirus and other winter viruses peaking high and early. And the late discharge of patients without social care packages, crumbling NHS estates and crippling staffing issues continue to add pressure to the health care system. But the NHS has to face another challenge: changing the mindset of patients who demand urgent and immediate care when it is not always what they need.
