Venue sought for Hastings and Bexhill breast screening service

The East Sussex breast screening service is urgently appealing for help finding an alternative site to start screening women living in Bexhill, St Leonards and Hastings.
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The service’s usual site at Bexhill Hospital is currently unavailable and various other options have proved unsuitable, according to Catherine Stewart, programme manager at East Sussex and Brighton & Hove Breast Screening.

The service now requires the use of a car park or land for about six months, starting at the end of June.

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Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the local breast screening service was forced to close for a short time and is now running reduced appointments to allow for social distancing and additional cleaning.

Breast screening helps detect early breast cancers and is free for women aged between 50 and 70.

Catherine Stewart said: “We are late starting with screening the women in the Bexhill area, and obviously have a lot to catch up on.

“We are trying to find an alternative site to locate a mobile screening unit and need the use of car park or spot of land for a period of approximately six months, from the end of June 2021.

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“The mobile unit will be brand new, delivered and set up by the mobiles manufacturer.

“We, the superintendent radiographer and I, have approached several sites but as yet have not been able to find anywhere.

“We are getting really concerned that the recovery of our NHS service is going to be further affected, and women’s mammograms further delayed.”