Starting Monday, June 23, past and current smokers aged 55–74 in Farnworth and Kearsley had a unique opportunity to get a free lung health check right in their local supermarket car park. This innovative mobile clinic will be parked at Tesco on Long Causeway, Bolton, and will operate six days a week (Monday to Saturday) from 8 am to 8 pm.
The goal of this initiative is to make lung health checks easily accessible to everyone who needs them. Invitations will be sent out via letters and text messages to eligible smokers and ex-smokers registered with doctors’ surgeries under the Farnworth and Kearsley Primary Care Network in Bolton. This includes patients from:
– Kearsley Medical Centre
– Stonehill Medical Centre
– Fig Tree Medical Practice
– Farnworth Family Practice
Upon arriving at the mobile clinic, individuals will first answer health and lifestyle questions with a specialist nurse. Based on these responses, the nurse will determine the individual’s risk level. Those identified as high-risk will be offered a low-dose CT scan of their lungs on the same day. High-risk individuals will then enter the lung health check programme.
Dr. Tarek Bakht, clinical lead for Cancer Bolton Integrated Care Board, emphasizes the importance of these checks: “Lung Health Checks help the NHS to spot lung cancer earlier when it is much more treatable. Please do come along for your appointment even if you feel fine. You’ll have a chat with a nurse and fill out a questionnaire to look at your risk.”
These lung health checks are part of the Greater Manchester Targeted Lung Health Check Programme, which aims to improve the early diagnosis of lung cancer and save more lives. Since its inception, the programme has resulted in more than 500 lung cancer diagnoses in Greater Manchester. Impressively, nearly 80% of these cases were detected at an early stage, making them eligible for curative treatment.
Bolton will see further expansion of this programme to cover even more people in the future. For more detailed information on the Targeted Lung Health Check programme, visit their website.