A £1 MILLION flagship service for ear, nose and throat patients was being officially launched at Ipswich Hospital today.The service brings much faster treatment and care for patients throughout the NHS in East Suffolk.

A £1 MILLION flagship service for ear, nose and throat patients was being officially launched at Ipswich Hospital today.

The service brings much faster treatment and care for patients throughout the NHS in East Suffolk.

Ear, nose and throat services at The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, and in three Primary Care Trusts – Ipswich, Suffolk Coastal and Central Suffolk – now offer much greater access for patients, thanks to an innovative Action On project.

This project is part of the government's initiative to bring the NHS up to date and includes almost £1m of funding to buy state-of-the-art equipment and bring the hospital's ENT clinic up-to-date.

Having looked at the treatment patients' receive, more treatment rooms were created, complete with leading edge technology, two new audiology (specialist hearing) rooms were developed and more community services provided.

Waiting times for treatment at the specialist ENT clinic have been dramatically reduced. Now, no-one waits more than eight weeks for an outpatient appointment, and for more than nine months to be admitted as an in-patient or as a day-case patient.

Before the project started, some patients were waiting more than six months for an appointment.

Matthew Yung, lead consultant for ENT services at the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We are delighted that we have been able to meet all of our aims particularly reducing waiting times and bringing much greater access to services, through working closely with the Modernisation Agency.

"We now have a first class environment, with leading edge technology to deliver high calibre clinical care to the people in our community."

Mr Yung, clinical director for specialist services at the Trust, added: "More people are being seen more quickly and the work of the community based services means that often people are seen much closer to where they live. Hospital –based colleagues now have more time to devote to patients who are most in need of specialist investigations, diagnosis and treatment."

A celebration event including colleagues from Primary Care, and the Government's Modernisation Agency was being held today.