Dr Sanjeev Pattni, a consultant gastroenterologist and co-head of service at UHL, said demand for the endoscopy procedure had increased over the years.
“We run a national bowel cancer screening programme…and the rate of detection is going up year on year,” he said.
“The new unit will allow us to meet demands and massively reduce the backlog.”
Rachael Briggs, associate director of operations at the trust, said: “We know how important earlier diagnosis is for conditions such as cancer, which endoscopy procedures help to detect.”
Simon Barton, the trust’s deputy chief executive, added: “We don’t want patients to wait for their care.
“We’re making progress but units like this allow us to make a big step change in reducing waiting time for patients.
“We will treat 9,000 more patients a year through this unit and we will see a 300 reduction in our waiting lists every month.”