Dr Linda Diggle says that, if approved by the States, draft regulations lodged on Thursday would prevent Islanders from ‘slipping through the net’ when it came to being invited to cervical, breast and bowel cancer screenings.
– Four options are currently being considered for a new hospital, by a team of external advisers brought in by the States. They include:
- Running a two-site facility, with the outpatients department moved to Overdale and the emergency, surgical and critical care remaining at a redeveloped General Hospital.
- Relocating the entire hospital to Overdale.
- Buying two hotels near to the existing Hospital the Stafford and the Revere and redeveloping the facility on one larger site.
- Building a new hospital at the Waterfront on an area north of the Radisson Hotel, currently earmarked for a housing scheme known as Zephyrus. This option would mean bulldozing the cinema and losing a large area of the public gardens at the Waterfront
– Two further sites, one off Queen’s Road and the other at St Saviour’s Hospital, are also understood to have been initially considered but were quickly deemed unsuitable.
– A team from consultants Gleeds have been brought in to investigate the potential sites and that feasibility review is costing taxpayers more than half a million pounds.
– The four options are now being considered after the Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny Panel said that they were ‘unconvinced’ by the original dual-site option and recommend that the project be re-examined and brought back to the States for approval.
All Islanders in their 60th year are eligible to be screened for bowel cancer, while women aged between 25 and 64 are eligible for smear tests and women aged between 50 and 69 can undergo breast cancer screening.
However, the Health Department says that it knows from data obtained from the census and the States Statistics Unit that there are a number of people in Jersey they are not in contact with.
Currently the department can only contact Islanders who are already in the healthcare system and so they are reliant on people putting themselves forward for screening.
However, under draft regulations lodged by the Chief Minister, the central register of names, addresses and dates of births, which is held by the States, would also be able to be accessed by health staff.
Dr Linda Diggle, head of healthcare programmes at the Public Health Department, said: ‘Currently Health and Social Services is not certain if we are inviting all the eligible people who are living in the Island for cancer screening.
‘Being able to invite everybody means we can maximise the potential for saving lives.’
At the moment, one or two women die of cervical cancer every year and twenty people die from bowel cancer.
Only 66 per cent of eligible women are attending for cervical screening.
Dr Diggle said: ‘Some of the 34 per cent not having screening may have chosen not to have it done. But we think a large proportion may not be having screening because we aren’t prompting them when they’re due the test.
‘And that’s because we don’t know who they are or where they live in order to write to them and remind them when a test is due.’
The central register, which is the responsibility of the Chief Minister, is already linked to the Social Security Department’s benefit and contribution IT system, and is used by the Population Office to manage people’s access to work and housing.
In time, it is hoped that more departments will be linked together, as the central register continues to develop and improve as a tool for the whole of government.
The regulations would also allow a comparison between the electoral register and the central register of names and addresses, to see if voter registration can be made easier and kept up to date better.
The Population Office moved to the Social Security building last December. This means that the Register of Names and Addresses Law, Control of Housing and Work Law, Social Security Law, and Income Support Law are all administered together.
Assistant Chief Minister Paul Routier said: ‘These new regulations will make a significant difference to Islanders. Linking departments together and sharing information in this way is a step towards Islanders being able to “tell us once” online when their circumstances change.
‘This is what our reform and e-Gov programmes are about – designing our services around the customer and becoming more efficient.’
ONE third of Islanders who are eligible to be screened for bowel cancer are putting their lives at risk by not taking up the offer, says a Hospital consultant.
Bowel cancer is the third most common cause of cancer in Jersey, with an average of 55 new cases diagnosed per year.
In 2013 the Hospital rolled out a screening scheme which invites all 60-year-old Islanders – around 1,000 people a year – to undergo a 15 minute examination.
But one in three Islanders who are offered the potentially life-saving test do not take up the opportunity.
As part of Bowel Cancer Awareness month in April, consultant gastroenterologist Dr David Ng urged Islanders not to be embarrassed to have the vital examination and warned that 95 per cent of people who are diagnosed with advanced stage bowel cancer die within five years.
However, he added nine out of ten cases of bowel cancer can be treated successfully if diagnosed early. Dr Ng, who works alongside Dr Moses Duku, said: ‘It’s a relatively painless examination that takes about 15 minutes. It could save your life.’
The test, using a narrow telescopic instrument called a flexisig, examines the bowel and detects any growths known as polyps, which can be removed and examined to see if they are cancerous.
Since the scheme was introduced five Islanders have had cancerous cells detected and have undergone life-saving treatment.
Meanwhile, Islanders are also asked to be on the lookout for early warning signs of bowel cancer through a Health Department Don’t Rush to Flush Campaign.
Dr Ng said: ‘It’s important that you get to know what bowel habits are normal for you so you can spot any changes. A change in bowel habit lasting for three weeks or more, especially to looser or runny poo, needs to be checked by a doctor.
‘Other symptoms to check for are any signs of bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo, unexplained weight loss, extreme tiredness for no obvious reason or a pain or lump in your tummy.’
