Spotlight on our Mobile Cancer Care Unit
Our Mobile Cancer Care Unit provides a vital service, allowing us to treat cancer patients closer to their homes, in the community.
Patients who need non-complex Systemic Anti-Cancer Treatments including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy and hormonal therapy are able to use the unit as a normal part of their treatment plan.
Hope for Tomorrow is a charity that currently fund a fleet of 12 mobile cancer care units in operation throughout England which allows NHS Trusts to provide care to patients closer to where they live. The units allow us to drive out to patients, saving them long, regular, and often disruptive journeys to hospital for their cancer treatment. The charity relies on generous donations as they do not receive any government funding.
The unit, named Amara, was supplied to us by the charity Hope for Tomorrow in October 2020. The N&N Hospitals Charity supported its introduction with a grant of £517,000 which funded equipment and the first three years of staffing on the unit. Since it arrived, more than 4338 treatments have been given on the unit. It currently operates in supermarket car parks in Dereham, Attleborough and Beccles, with plans to start a fourth day in Diss soon. It is staffed by two of our specialist chemotherapy nurses and the driver. Last year just under 2000 treatments were given on board Amara, equal to around 6% of all cancer treatments given to NNUH patients.
Amy Gonzalez, Deputy Sister, works on the unit one day a week. She welcomes plans to add a fourth location at Diss, in the near future.
“Norfolk is a huge area and there is absolutely no doubt that the unit plays a major part in easing stress levels for people attending the unit,” she says.
“By its very nature it offers a personal, holistic touch. It can make the difference between feeling human and feeling like a patient and when you are receiving treatment for a long-time that is so important.”
“We try as much as possible to put the same teams together for the same locations as that continuity for patients to be seen regularly by familiar faces undoubtedly helps towards reducing stress,” says Amy.
“When people are not feeling well or they are tired it’s important to make things as easy as possible.
“Whether that is reducing travel time, taking the hassle out of parking or removing the fear of having to deal with strangers at every appointment, it all helps to put patients at ease.
“And that can only be beneficial to their whole experience of enduring cancer treatment and how they respond to it.”
Amara is fitted with four treatment chairs, so depending on treatment times our team can see up to 20 patients a day.
Sixty-eight year-old patient Anne Steel (pictured) from Diss is currently having treatment for bowel cancer and attends the unit in Attleborough. She said: “I now attend the mobile unit every three weeks and take medication at home in between those visits, and I much prefer it to going into the hospital.
“Everything about cancer and the treatment that goes with it is quite an emotional experience. But for some reason, I really don’t know why, it seems less of a big thing going to the mobile unit for my treatment. I think the intimate environment really helps to take the stress out of it.
“It’s friendly and it’s sociable. I often bump into a familiar face and we exchange a smile and say hello and that’s reassuring and comforting.
“Our driver on the bus, Jack, is great. He always seems to be able to remember everyone’s name and he is always eager to have a little chat and a laugh. It’s those little things that help you through.
“The bus works on every level for me. Less hassle parking is a plus. Shorter appointments are great, and I appreciate the all-round less formal environment.”
Although the units are small with only four chairs available, the space is kitted out with everything the patients need and would expect inside the hospital.
Amy says: “The treatment is exactly the same. The big difference is the smaller, more intimate environment on the unit and the speed at which people can be seen due to our limited seating capacity, and those are all positives.”
And she adds: “I think the units are brilliant. I get to see first-hand how stress and worry melts away, especially as time goes on and patients start to feel more at ease as the familiarity sets in.
For Amy, her work is always rewarding but she says, “working on the mobile unit gives the staff just that little bit of extra one-to-one with a patient.”
Notes to Editors
The units cost approximately £300,000. The charity funds all maintenance, at a cost of approximately £212 a day.
For more information visit https://hopefortomorrow.org.uk/