Hospital of St Cross team celebrates one year of service which provides key service for women

The Flexible Outpatient Cystoscopy Urogynaecology Service (FOCUS) service was launched in 2017 at St Cross, providing a key service for women across Warwickshire.

But in the 12 months since it started, the service is already helping women from beyond the county.

FOCUS was launched at St Cross thanks to support from the Friends of St Cross which bought the specialist equipment needed for the service.

Now, one year one, at the recent Friends AGM, the FOCUS team, based in the Owen Building at St Cross, celebrated the first anniversary of the Friend’s committing to support the service.

Kara Marshall, group manager for women’s and children’s services, said: “The new service has been an outstanding success.

“Patients no longer have to be diagnosed and treated under general anaesthetic at University Hospital but can have their procedures completed using local anaesthetic in an outpatient environment.

“Feedback from our patients has been so positive, with them highlighting that the facilities and clinic environment are excellent, and the team were quickly able to diagnose their problem.

“Initially we treated patients mainly from Coventry and Rugby, but we are now attracting patients from Northampton and further afield and are excited to see the service continue to grow.”

Willy Goldschmidt, chairman of the Friends of St Cross, said: “It is great to hear how our donations have improved the patient experience and helped to develop new services closer to the people of Rugby.

"We are constantly discussing how we might support other services to be based at St Cross and have just approved an £84k request for the equipment needed to establish a new outpatient hysteroscopy service and hope to make further announcements in the autumn.”