New care project opens for haematology patients
16/12/2013
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A new facility has opened at the Churchill Hospital's Haematology Ward offering a new way of caring for some transplant patients.
It provides them with outpatient rather than inpatient care, enabling them to go home more quickly following transplant. The Ambulatory Care Project has been introduced to allow 'relatively well' patients the chance to remain at home for the first part of their treatment that, historically they would have been admitted for.
It is hoped that this new way of caring for patients will encourage a better dietary intake and an improved psychological state, which should help them to recover more quickly following their bone marrow transplant.
This approach has already been tried by a number of other haematology and bone marrow units across the UK, with positive feedback.
Rachel Miller, Clinical Haematology Ward Sister, said: "Our ambulatory care area has been created in what was once an under-used space on the ward. It houses a bed and a chair, and will be staffed for 12 hours a day by a ward nurse who will deliver chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant conditioning therapies and stem cell / bone marrow infusions.
"The patients will return home each evening and will have access to the ward staff 24/7 for advice or readmission."
Doctors and nurse specialists identify those patients who are suitable for this type of treatment, and they are given lots of information so that they can decide whether ambulatory care is right for them.
The first patient to be treated in the new facility was Helen Chambless. She said: "While the ward care is fantastic and it has its place in many situations, any opportunity where a patient like me can be enabled to go home is so important.
To be at home and still have access to the ward care was brilliant, and allowed me to be reminded of what I was fighting for. This facility has the potential to positively impact on so many patients over the coming months and years."
Pictured at the opening are: Divisional Nurse, Ali Cornall, General Manager of Surgery and Oncology, Rainer Buhler, Helen Chambless, patient, Haematology Ward Sister, Rachel Miller and Matron, Hayley Smith.