Past and current smokers in Leigh aged between 55–74 years old are being invited to have an NHS Lung Health Check in a drive to save more lives.
A mobile health clinic has been stationed at Tesco in Hindley since mid-November where more than 3102 people have benefitted from a Lung Health Check.
Now the service will be available at Tesco Extra in Leigh from Monday 22 January.
Lung Health Checks are now available in Leigh for people aged 55-74 who are smokers or previous smokers.
A scanner and clinic will be housed in a mobile unit at the store’s car park at The Loom, Derby Street. It will operate 6 days a week (Monday to Saturday) from 8am to 8pm to ensure that appointments are accessible to everyone who’s invited.
GP letters will be sent out to smokers and former smokers aged 55-74 years in the Leigh primary care network.
The new checks are the latest phase of the Greater Manchester Targeted Lung Health Check Programme – a drive to help improve earlier diagnosis of lung cancer and save more lives. The programme is jointly organised by the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Greater Manchester has one of the highest mortality rates for lung cancer in England. The Lung Health Checks have already been operating in some parts of Greater Manchester – including North Manchester, Salford and Tameside. There are further plans to expand the programme in the coming years to ensure that all eligible participants are invited.
Patients who are invited for a lung health check will firstly talk to specialist nurse where they will answer some health and lifestyle questions which will determine whether they are ‘high’ or ‘low’ risk. If deemed high risk, they will be offered a low-dose computed tomography (CT) scan of their lungs for further investigation on the same day and be enrolled into the programme.
Most visitors to the Lung Health Checks will get reassurance that everything is OK or be referred to get help to stop smoking.
So far 450 patients have been diagnosed with lung cancer as a result of the Lung Health Checks in Greater Manchester, however, almost 80% of these patients were diagnosed at stage 1 or 2 meaning they were more likely to be eligible for curative treatment.
People diagnosed with lung cancer at the earliest stage are nearly 20 times more likely to survive for five years than those whose cancer is caught late.