Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT) has introduced a new initiative which aims to bring care closer to patients' homes.

A community trans-nasal endoscopy service, delivered by the team from Bodmin Hospital in a specially equipped van, is now available offering patients more options on where to receive their procedure.

This service also frees up resources at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

Roz Davies, the Specialist Services and Surgery General Manager at RCHT said: "Endoscopy tends to be tied to hospitals.

"However, with advances in mobile ventilation and decontamination of endoscopes we can deliver this service away from the acute hospital site and deliver this within treatment rooms at our fabulous community hospitals.

"This then allows us to undertake the larger and more complex procedures on site in the space released."

Falmouth Packet: The new 'closer to home' service will be delivered from Bodmin Hospital

Ms Davies also explained that trans-nasal endoscopy doesn't require the sedation and long recovery time associated with other endoscopies.

This lets the procedure be conducted in a different environment, and according to Ms Davies, "community hospitals are the perfect place to deliver these procedures closer to the patients’ home."

RCHT's Clinical Nurse Endoscopists and Physician Associates will deliver the service, a choice which Ms Davies states allows greater flexibility to deliver the service across the county.

This aids consultants in focusing on the larger hospital sites to offer complex endoscopy.

Ms Davies added that RCHT is fortunate to have an innovative gastroenterology team that has embraced and delivered this community endoscopy service.

"It is a fantastic model for rural communities and certainly for our county which suffers from food, fuel and digital poverty", she said.

A user of the new service, Guilianna Williams, explained its convenience. She said: "It was easier at Bodmin Hospital as it was local to me.

"The staff were so friendly and put me at ease.

"The environment was calm, which helped me relax, there were no side effects from the procedure, and I left pretty quickly afterwards."

Presently, the first community trans-nasal endoscopy service is in Bodmin.

Plans are underway to extend the service to another two sites in Cornwall by spring 2024.

Endoscopy is a procedure allowing doctors to examine the lining of the food pipe, stomach and small intestine.

Patients need a GP referral to use the new service.