An innovative lung screen project in Gloucestershire is helping to save lives.

Eagle-eyed shoppers at Tesco in St Oswald’s in Gloucester may have spotted the large InHealth van in the car park in the past few weeks, following on from a visit earlier in the year.

During that time more than 1,100 people have visited to have appointments with specialists and lung scans. The lung MOTs have been offered to those at most risk from developing lung cancer, with each patient given checks based on their personal needs. Some go on to have a scan in the scanning unit, parked up next to the mobile clinic.

The scheme is part of a national initiative aimed at giving patients a better chance of beating cancer by diagnosing it earlier.

Sadaf Haque, GP Clinical Lead for Cancer at NHS Gloucestershire, said:

“It is a fantastic opportunity to have this as a proper screening programme, bringing services directly into neighbourhoods in the county.

“Lung cancer is common, and it is preventable if it is caught early. Weeks matter with lung cancer, it can spread quickly so catching it early is so important.

“Having the clinic somewhere like Tesco means it is accessible, there’s a bus, there’s easy parking and you can combine it with daily life like shopping so it doesn’t feel like a specific medical appointment. We know this can cut down on some of the anxieties people feel around this sort of thing.

“The assessment here is a quick but thorough process and if you are invited to come into the clinic, we’d urge you to take it up, lung cancer can be there without any symptoms and early detection saves lives.

“It is wonderful to see that on the day I visited only one person out of 55 didn’t attend, which shows how patients from Aspen Medical Practice are valuing this opportunity.”

Patients from participating GP practices who are aged between 55 and 74 and are either smokers or ex smokers are invited to attend a lung health check via a letter.

The first step is an initial phone assessment, if the assessment finds the person to be at high risk, they are invited to a nurse assessment at the mobile clinic and sometimes they are offered a low dose CT scan of the lungs for further investigation based on their specific needs.

Julie Frost, Operations Manager for InHealth’s Lung Screening Team said:

“At InHealth we are proud to be bringing our Lung Health Clinics to neighbourhoods across Gloucestershire and the wider South West

“We know the clinics and scans are making a difference, we’ve had patients stop by after doing shopping to tell us that the scans have picked up problems which are now being treated. They’ve told us that they had no symptoms and no idea they could be at risk and all it took was replying to the letter they received inviting them to attend.

“Supporting our NHS colleagues and bringing our services directly into communities means we can see people in an easy-to-access location at times which suit their lives. Our team work seven days a week, seeing up to 60 patients a day for nurse-led assessments and scans.”

The InHealth Lung Screening team has already worked with two Primary Care Networks (groups of GP surgeries) in Gloucester and will be heading over to the Forest of Dean later in the year. The project is commissioned by the SWAG (Somerset, Wiltshire, Avon and Gloucestershire) Cancer Alliance and is currently targeting areas where there are high numbers of eligible patients. The Lung screening project is expected to be available in all areas of Gloucestershire by 2030.

Current smokers across Gloucestershire are also being offered the opportunity of dedicated personalised support to stop smoking from our Healthy Lifestyles Service.