Why a radiotherapy unit in Worcester is so important to have

9:11am Wednesday 19th March 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

RADIOTHERAPY is unpleasant enough for cancer patients without them having to face a gruelling and exhausting journey to and from hospital as well.

It is for this very reason that patients, health chiefs and doctors have battled for a radiotherapy unit here in Worcestershire.

A recent Government inquiry advised that no patient should have to travel for more than 45 minutes to receive radiotherapy. But patients in Worcestershire currently face trips to Wolverhampton, Coventry, Cheltenham and Birmingham.

However, there is hope that a new unit could be built at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.

Michael O'Riordan, chairman of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "All our patients have to go outside the county to other centres and we are extremely supportive of any measure by which we will bring satellite radio therapy to patients."

The unit would be funded by central Government, although no decision has yet been taken about its location - it could be built in Hereford or the cash could be used to expand existing radiotherapy services in Cheltenham.

A decision could be made by September, although no date has yet been set by the Three Counties Cancer Network which manages all aspects of cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and supportive and palliative care.

Plans for the centre, which will cost between £3 million and £5 million, were discussed at a trust meeting at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch recently.

The unit would treat most forms of cancer including breast, prostate, lung, bladder, bowel and oesophageal cancer.

If built, it would contain two linear accelerator machines - called linacs, a treatment planning facility - called a simulator, a day case chemotherapy facility and possibly a pharmacy aseptic suite and dispensary.

A treatment workshop would be provided for making patient moulds and an electronics workshop for maintaining the equipment.

A hostel would be available so patients can stay overnight so as to avoid frequent and difficult journeys. Cancer patients and their supporters have already handed in a petition with 22,000 names backing a satellite radiotherapy unit in Worcestershire.

Megan Greenway, aged 77, of Lower Wick, Worcester, is in remission from bowel cancer after she received radiotherapy in 2006.

She said: "During and following major surgery for bowel cancer I had excellent care in the Rowan Suite at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and would have appreciated being able to have radiotherapy in the hospital I had become familiar with rather than travelling to Cheltenham every day. There is a long journey home following radiotherapy which made me feel nauseous and overwhelmingly tired and desperate to go to bed."

Fortunately, she had friends to take her to the 30 sessions of radiotherapy she needed but said the trauma would have been reduced by not having to travel miles to be treated.

The trust already has 23 radiotherapy sessions per week run by visiting oncologists and six consultant haemotologists working for the trust and the hope is to combine this into a single service.

Nationally, hospitals have to increase radiotherapy by 60 per cent to meet Government targets.

The unit is something Sylvia Render, aged 69, of Calgary Drive, Lower Wick, Worcester, said would have made life fear easier for her late husband Jack.

Mr Render, who helped to found the Worcester Cancer Cancer Support Group with Jessie Christie, died aged 54 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on October 2, 1991.

His work with the group, which has helped hundreds of people with cancer and is still going strong after 25 years, led to Mr Render being awarded an MBE.

Mrs Render said she would be "delighted" if such a unit was set up in the county.

She said although the group was to support people with cancer, not campaign, members of the group would be overjoyed if there was a unit in Worcestershire.

Mr Render faced a 50-mile round trip to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for his 30 sessions of radiotherapy.

She said: "To have this unit would be the best news for patients in Worcestershire for a long time.

"Jack would have been delighted. He was supportive of anything that could help someone in the same position he was in.

"Had there been a unit in Worcestershire it would have taken away much of the stress."

The Worcester Cancer Support Group is still going, run by Hannah Thake, Jack's successor.