A hospital cafe is set to be transformed into a forward-thinking breast cancer centre, because many people with the disease don’t see themselves as ‘patients’, according to a breast cancer specialist.
While being visited by MP Dawn Butler this week, London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital laid out their ambitious plans for a ‘centre of excellence’, saying that they expect work to start next year.
The initiative has the potential to help develop new treatments for the whole world, with any breast cancer surgery brought together under one roof with three specialist operating theatres so patients do not have to use the main hospital or travel to other sites just after chemo therapy.
Surgeon and network director for breast surgery at Barts Health, Laura Johnson, told Metro.co.uk: ‘Most patients who have breast disease don’t feel unwell. They don’t feel like patients.
‘They might not even have a lump. They’ve maybe just been told they have disease through the national screening programme and then all of a sudden they’re having major surgery.