SOARING demand for life-saving cancer treatment has led to health chiefs investing £1m in a new state-of-the-art drugs unit at Northumberland’s biggest hospital.
The sterile pharmacy facility at Wansbeck General in Ashington has been developed to cater for the growing demand for chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer sufferers in Northumberland and North Tyneside.
The investment by bosses at the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is in response to a 35% rise in the number of people needing cancer treatment at its hospitals.
This has resulted in a 53% increase in demand for specialist chemotherapy drugs since 2007.
The new unit will help the trust satisfy the medicinal needs of patients attending cancer units at Wansbeck General, North Tyneside General, Hexham Hospital and Berwick Infirmary.
In addition, it will supply chemotherapy drugs to a new cancer treatment department planned at Alnwick Infirmary.
Yesterday it was opened by Wansbeck Labour MP Ian Lavery, who said it was an important new facility which would improve drug treatment for cancer sufferers.
Six new pharmacy staff have been recruited to work in the unit, and it is hoped more will be added to the team in the near future. It increases the capacity of the hospital to produce vital chemotherapy drugs in a sterile and safe environment, and is much larger than the pharmacy unit it replaces.
It has five modern isolators – specialist machines where the medicines are planned and prepared -– compared to two, which were running at full capacity, in the old unit.
The new unit will also allow pharmacy staff to provide an improved service to patients in the trust’s wards and departments through a centralised intravenous additive service.
At present, intravenous drugs are prepared on often busy and noisy wards, but later this year the production of these medicines will move to the new sterile unit. Yesterday Graeme Richardson, the trust’s head of operational pharmacy services, said the increasing demand for cancer treatment and chemotherapy drugs was the result of the people living for longer.
“The sterile unit is an exciting development for Wansbeck General. It will give us the opportunity to further improve patient experience and provide ready-made, high-quality medicines for our patients. We are already in discussions with some of our consultants to look at new ways of working, for example producing drugs that patients can store and use at home.”
David Campbell, the trust’s chief pharmacist, said: “Instead of nurses making up intravenous drugs on the ward, they will soon be prepared in the new unit in a more controlled environment. That means the product is better, patient care is improved and nursing time freed up.”
Mr Lavery said: “I’m delighted that the trust has decided to locate this important facility at Wansbeck Hospital. It will benefit cancer patients, not only in Wansbeck but throughout Northumberland and North Tyneside, providing much-needed chemotherapy medicines so that they can be treated closer to their homes.”
