A new model of children’s cancer treatment, delivering chemotherapy and supportive cancer treatments on a mobile cancer care unit, has been launched by Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and partners.
This pilot project of a mobile cancer care unit is a partnership project between the North West Children’s Cancer Operational Delivery Network (NWCCODN) and the charity Hope for Tomorrow, who have provided the mobile unit.
It is funded by the three Cancer Alliances within the North West (Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance and Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance) and delivered by staff from MFT’s Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Around 600 children are treated for cancer in The North West region each year. Children, young people and their families across the North West of England face significant travel challenges to access specialist cancer care. Unlike adults, children and young people who are being treated for cancer must journey further due to the limited number of specialist centers. Families often travel hundreds of miles for treatment on multiple occasions.
These journeys can place considerable time and financial pressures on families, with recent North West data showing an average monthly travel cost of £245 and an average one-way journey of 54 miles.
Hope for Tomorrow provide a fleet of mobile cancer care units that are used across the country to provide adult cancer care, however this is the first time one will be used to treat children and young people.
The unit will transform how children and young people with cancer receive treatment in Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire, South Lancashire, Cumbria and North Wales, leading to reduction in reducing travel, stress, and time away from home, school and family life and will complement existing services provided by local Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Units (POSCU) and Children’s Community Nursing Teams.
Nurses from the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Foundation Trust oncology units are now delivering treatments on the specially purposed mobile unit placed in community settings across the North West Region. Selected chemotherapy and supportive treatments, which are typically administered in a day case clinic will be delivered closer to a patient’s home.
