NEW SERVICE ON OFFER FOR CANCER PATIENTS IN CAERPHILLY COUNTY BOROUGH

Caerphilly Local Health Board has launched a new outreach service that will allow cancer patients to receive treatment closer to home. Specialist nursing staff from Velindre NHS Trust will provide a once weekly chemotherapy service in the St David’s Foundation Day Hospice on the Ystrad Mynach Hospital site.

Judith Paget, chief executive of Caerphilly Local Health Board, said: “This local service will enable patients who currently attend Velindre Hospital and other hospitals outside the County Borough for outpatient chemotherapy treatment to receive it closer to home. I’m delighted that we are able to do this, as during the consultation on the planned new hospital, this was one of the things people told us they wanted to access more locally.”

Staff at Velindre Hospital are also pleased with the scheme, as it will benefit patients by reducing travelling time, which will lead to less anxiety and, in some cases, less side effects, particularly fatigue and sickness.

Cathy Barker, a chemotherapy sister at Velindre Hospital, said: “I have a 77 year old patient from Hengoed who is receiving weekly chemotherapy for 24 weeks at Prince Charles Hospital. When I asked her if she would like to transfer her treatment to Ystrad Mynach she was thrilled as it will now only be a 10 minute bus journey for her. Previously her daughter-in-law had to come and pick her up from Pontllanfraith and then drive 30 minutes to Merthyr Tydfil.”