The ‘one-stop clinic’ sees patients that are referred from their GP and provides all the necessary investigations to enable diagnosis of their lump or swelling to be carried out at the same appointment. The clinic is run by a team of skilled health care professionals, enabling all the required scans and cell sampling for initial diagnosis to be carried out at the same appointment.
The cell sample is reviewed under the microscope in the appointment to ensure that sufficient sampling is obtained. This is known as ROSE (Rapid on site evaluation). Without ROSE, local data suggest that because of the complexity of taking samples for these types of investigation up to 40% of patients would need to return to the hospital for another appointment and a repeat biopsy, resulting in delays, increased patient anxiety and wait time to treatment.
ROSE is now seen as an essential part of the service, helping to reduce demand on busy appointment slots for investigation. Currently, 95% of patients attending RCHT with a neck lump that are seen on a ROSE clinic require just one appointment to obtain sufficient diagnostic material.
Mr Venkat Reddy, Consultant Ear Nose and Throat Surgeon, Dr Benjamin Rock and Dr Jack Looker, Consultant Radiologists and Leonie Wheeldon, Senior Biomedical Scientist at RCHT have been delivering online sessions for the Royal College of Radiologists and the British Association for Cytopathology on the initiative. Feedback from the sessions has been very positive.
Pictured below: Some of the team – RCHT Neck Lump Clinic staff
Top from the left:
Evette Grobbelaar ENT surgeon, Georgie Purvis Senior Biomedical Scientist, Leonie Wheeldon Senior Biomedical Scientist, Ben Rock Consultant Radiologist, Venkat Reddy ENT Surgeon.
Bottom from the left:
Tracey Roberts HCA, Karen Yelland Senior staff nurse, Kathy Rowe HCA, Jack Looker Consultant Radiologist, Kell Anyanwu ENT Surgeon.
