Chemotherapy at home
In Conwy and Denbighshire, cancer patients can be cared for in their own community rather than having to travel to hospital for treatment.
A specialist nurse based at The North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre and in Conwy and Denbighshire Community helps the district nurses to deliver this specialist service to patients in their own home or community clinics. These patients are given a ‘chemotherapy pump’, which supplies their chemotherapy through a ‘central line’”. This is a soft flexible thin plastic tube inserted into a vein in the arm or chest wall.
Sister Pat Pilkington from the North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre says:
“In the last year, 80 patients have chosen to have their treatment delivered in this way, preventing them from attending hospital 24 times each. Annually this is 1,920 visits less to hospital. It means patients have more time at home with their families, improving their quality of life and easing their cancer journey”
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