More Isle of Wight residents will have to head to Portsmouth, instead of Southampton for cancer treatment.
Colorectal and breast cancer patients will receive their oncology services from specialists at Queen Alexandra Hospital, in an extension of the strategic partnership between the Isle of Wight NHS Trust (IW) and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU), which started in 2019.
The move will take place next Monday 4th April, but patients will still be diagnosed, surgically treated, tested, receive chemotherapy treatments and attend appointments at St Mary’s Hospital on the Island as far as possible.
As the tertiary centre for tumour groups, some cancer services will remain at Southampton General Hospital, including lung, brain, upper gastrointestinal and neurological cancers.
For those in the middle of their treatment, it will continue at Southampton and aftercare will be provided by PHU.
Radiotherapy will also move to Portsmouth, due to the specialist licences, equipment and staff required. There will be no changes to the Island’s chemotherapy unit, however.
Patients affected by the move — roughly 200 breast cancer and 100 colorectal patients — should have received a letter explaining the changes to them along with an appointment letter from PHU.
Some Island cancer patients, including prostate, skin, head and neck, already receive care from PHU and the Isle of Wight say no complaints have been received about the services it provides in the last2 years.
Dr Akash Maniam, one of the Island’s new breast cancer consultants, from PHU, said he cannot wait to work on the Island. He said:
“With the remit and staffing we have at Portsmouth, it is a natural step in our partnership and will harmonise the care we are providing in the region and build on our good relationship.”
At a meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s health and social care scrutiny committee this month, the Island trust’s interim chief executive, Darren Cattell, said they were really pleased about the move as PHU was able to provide the specialist care needed. He recognised there may be more or fewer travel issues, depending on where patients lived on the Island but the trust was looking at where the best possible care was and patients would get the right possible care in the right place.
Those patients unable to travel daily to PHU for treatment will be accommodated at a nearby hotel following discussions with their oncologist.
The Daisy Bus will also continue to operate providing travel to and from the hospitals from Hovertravel and Red Funnel terminals.
UPDATE – The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has asked us to respond to the experiences you have shared. Please could you contact the Patient Experience Team on or 01983 534850 or via [email protected] with the information above so it can be looked into? Alternatively, speak with you Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS). Thank you.
Everyone is chuffed to bits except the paitents.I have travelled to southampton with a close relative on many occasions for treatment.They found it extremly stressful and very time consuming. and tiring.
Nothing ever ever ran on time in the hospital.If the appointments were not late the phamacy was. 4hour delays were not uncommon.Not ideal for someone suffering with cancer who has just had chemo.The staff could also could not grasp the difficulties in travelling to and from the island.
A complete horror show
My treatment was at QA Portsmouth and following 6 hour chemo infusion usually I felt so ill I just wanted to get home asap. Travelling from the Island to Portsmouth via Ryde is exhausting, worse still when I started radiotherapy on the two occasions I had to have 2 hours of chemo treatment then radiotherapy. I nearly gave up going it was very debilitating. BUT I am still here, would I do it all again should the cancer return – that I am not sure about. The Daisy bus is brilliant unfortunately it does have a more restricted time table than the service that runs to S’oton Hospital, hopefully the Portsmouth contingent will rethink times
Let Let’s hope they actually get the treatment they need as cancer care on the island is a joke. I had an operation in Portsmouth last year and I am supposed to have follow up scans and blood tests every six months for the next ten years. After seven months I had heard nothing and had to chase up St Mary’s myself. I was told that I must have “fallen through the cracks”. Well, seven months on and I appear to have fallen into the same crack again as I have not received an appointment. Disgraceful hospital with a disgraceful service. I will consider sueing them for medical negligence I think.
There is no celebration attached to this. The ageing population of the Island needs to have ‘state of the art’ treatments on the Island.
Clearly not of interest to the council. Just tax and more houses.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has asked us to respond to the experiences you have shared. Please could you contact the Patient Experience Team on or 01983 534850 or via [email protected] with the information above so it can be looked into? Alternatively, speak with you Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS). Thank you.