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Care Opinion

Reduced services in Moray

Posted By ForgottenInMoray

"Reduced services in Moray"

About: Community Services in Grampian Dr Gray's Hospital / Oncology / Cancer Pathway NHS Grampian

(as a relative),

My nan was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer in June of last year. The treatment she received in Dr Gray's was fantastic and both her and my mum couldn't fault a single thing, we were helped with access to Marie Curie, all equipment she needed at home etc.

However she was offered palliative chemotherapy to alleviate some of her symptoms. She decided not go ahead with this as the only place she could receive it was Aberdeen. Although we discussed this at length with the Consultant a lot of the decision was down to having travel.

With late stage lung cancer and COPD this would have been extremely uncomfortable for her and an added stress for her.

She passed away very peacefully at home thanks to the community team and Marie Curie Nurses which was everything we could've hoped for for her palliative care however I really don't feel it's fair that she and many in her position are unable to access this treatment due to location.

It almost feels as though we are all forgotten when we live in Moray and everything is centred around Aberdeen. It doesn't seem fair to ask someone in their last stages of life to travel so far everyday for treatment which should surely be available in a hospital with such a large catchment area and ageing population.

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Responses

Response from Cameron Matthew, Divisional General Manager, Clinical Support Services Division, NHS Grampian 5 years ago
Cameron Matthew
Divisional General Manager, Clinical Support Services Division,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 04/09/2018 at 07:27
Published on Care Opinion at 09:25

picture of Cameron Matthew

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. I am sorry to hear about your Nan and I am also sorry to hear of your circumstances. I do understand your frustrations and it is one that as a team we are aware of. We absolutely agree that treatments should be offered closer to home. This is especially true in the elderly and frail. There is a purpose built unit at Dr Grays hospital(DGH), the Spey unit. Our aim to have this up and running five days a week. There are various problems associated with this. Namely, staffing, we need the correct personnel that have the required experience and training. Nursing recruitment is particularly challenging at present. So by default all our resources are pooled to Aberdeen so the treatment is available there for the wider population.

There are also logistical issues with the delivery of chemotherapy to Elgin. They are made in an aseptic suite that is in Aberdeen. The safe and timely transport of these medicines is again a challenge. Chemotherapy are some of the most complex medicines and as such must be delivered under very strict clinical supervision which at times is not possible in Dr Grays. Additionally these drugs can have very short shelf lives of just a few hours which make it impossible ever to be delivered to Dr Grays requiring patients to attend Aberdeen for these treatments.

That said, we are aware that the people of Moray need this local service. We are doing all that we can to ensure this at DGH and I can ensure to you that the people of Moray are most definitely not forgotten. We are also exploring options for a mobile chemotherapy unit. There is evidence of this working well in other parts of the country. I hope this helps to answer your feedback. I once again apologise for this but I hope you can see that we are trying to deal with this situation

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