A BRAND new breast clinic in Worcester, which includes a state-of-the-art scanner, is offering patients in the county the most top of the range treatment and diagnosis available.

The new Breast Care Centre at the privately-run Spire South Bank Hospital in Bath Road was set up in November and is part of a £4 million investment into new facilities at the site.

The centre includes a state-of-the-art digital mammography machine – believed to be the most high-tech in the private sector in the three counties – allowing patients to see scan results immediately.

The centre’s team consists of radiologist, a radiographer, a specialist breast care nurse and a receptionist, led by consultant breast surgeon Steven Thrush, who was also a key figure in the campaign to raise £1.8 million to build a new breast unit at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Mr Thrush said he and his colleagues were able to offer a range of services, including intra-operative radiotherapy, in which cancer patients who are undergoing surgery undergo radiotherapy at the same time.

“You can have your breast cancer removed and then have the radiotherapy while you’re asleep,” he said.

“So instead of going every day for five weeks you can have it all in one shot.”

Mr Thrush said the centre was housed in a separate building from the rest of the hospital to give patients as much privacy as possible.

“Everyone comes in here feeling like they’ve got breast cancer, so we want to make it as comfortable as possible,” he said. “If someone is told bad news they don’t have to walk through a clinic full of people having their haemorrhoids done.”

He added the centre – which can treat up to 10 patients a day – was not intended to compete with the unit at the Royal, which is expected to be up and running this autumn, but would give patients a greater choice of where they are treated.

Hospital director at Spire South Bank Ben Nicholson welcomed the opening of the new centre, saying: “I am extremely indebted to Mr Steven Thrush and his colleagues, all of whom offer unquestionable clinical expertise in the treatment of breast conditions, for helping bring this project to fruition".