Chemo unit delay ‘has let down cancer patients’

Sufferers forced to use mobile unit or travel to Canterbury

Cancer patients have been told that a chemotherapy ward will not reopen until at least the end of the month after a building company went into administration halfway through the work.

The Celia Blakey Unit at the William Harvey Hospital was closed in July 2015 due to a nationwide shortage of trained nurses and high staff turnover at the hospital.

Since then patients were told to get their treatment at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital or at a mobile chemotherapy unit in the hospital car park.

Eas t Kent NHS Tr u s t (EKHUFT) chiefs had initially hoped to get the unit back up and running by July last year, but the scheme was beset by delays.

Then in September last year it was announced that work on reopening the unit was set to start, with patients told it could be open by Christmas.

But despite work starting in October, the contractor responsible went into administration The chemotherapy unit is being put in the Arundel Unit and, inset, Debbie Hughes, who had to travel to Canterbury which added more delays for to close. cancer patients. “For people diagnosed with

Debbie Hughes, 50, from Park cancer it is when you are at your Farm, was among those affected lowest point, so it’s tragic that when she was told she would the unit was closed. have to travel to Canterbury to “I felt very let down by the complete her chemotherapy to decision, and we’ve heard lots of treat her breast cancer, despite excuses since, but for us it was being halfway through her care heartbreaking.” at the William Harvey Hospital. Mrs Hughes had a second mas

She said: “If it reopens, it has tectomy last summer and is now got to be beneficial for the whole awaiting a final tidy up operation area. It’s terrible that with a later this year. growing town like Ashford that The chemotherapy unit at the the unit at the big hospital had William Harvey Hospital is being put in the Arundel Unit, and health trust spokesman Steve James said work is progressing well.

He said: “The new company has given us an estimated completion date of late February or early March. We aim to ensure a smooth transition of patients to the new premises.”

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