Continuing to provide patients who have high-risk cancers with appropriate and timely treatment against the backdrop of a global pandemic has been a key focus and challenge for our trust for much of this year.
Cancer is not a disease that waits. We have been driven to find new ways of working by the belief that our patients need and deserve to continue receiving a high level of care. Building on our regionally and nationally recognised expertise for treating patients with high-risk cancers (head and neck, skin and breast) and the dedication and commitment of our teams we set to reduce the risk of COVID-19 at our hospital to protect our patients and safeguard our workforce.
In April we became the first designated surgical cancer hub to open in the South East of England. Our role would see us receiving referrals from trusts across Sussex, Surrey and Kent, and working with the different hospital teams to create a multidisciplinary approach to agree the best approach for each patient.
With cancer patients needing to self-isolate prior to surgery, we put in place significant additional infection prevention control measures including temperature checking all patients and staff coming onto site, restricting visitors, and where possible converting many of our outpatient appointments to virtual or telephone consultations. Cancer patients were swabbed prior to surgery and provided with a CT scan as appropriate.
Up to the start of November, we have operated on 465 breast cancer patients, 163 major head and neck cancer patients, 42% of whom required more than four hours of surgery, and 33% had a major reconstruction region or free flap.
Chief executive
Up to the start of November, we have operated on 465 breast cancer patients, 163 major head and neck cancer patients, 42% of whom required more than four hours of surgery, and 33% had a major reconstruction region or free flap. We also received around 850 suspected or confirmed skin cancer referrals for our 'see and treat' skin cancer clinic.
However as a specialist surgical hospital we see a significant number of trauma patients with injuries to the eye, hand or face, including burns, referred to us from across the South East. To keep the site as safe as possible we needed to find another way of treating this group. We were able to rapidly mobilise and make use of the national contract to work with independent sector providers, in our case the McIndoe Centre, part of Horder Healthcare, co-located on our site. It meant trauma patients could continue to be treated by our clinical team but in a different building. Such a successful arrangement is testament to how the NHS and private sector can work together.
Part of our restoration and recovery plans have involved us looking at and in some cases changing the location of some of our services on our site to better support our patients.
Chief executive
Being responsive continues to be key. Part of our restoration and recovery plans have involved us looking at and in some cases changing the location of some of our services on our site to better support our patients. We continue to work with The McIndoe Centre, now on elective rather than trauma cases. This would not have been possible without the can do attitude of our staff who were willing to work differently to provide the best care for our patients.
Testing remains as important as ever. We are successfully running OptiGene testing on site for patients prior to surgery as well as frontline staff which gives a swift result and allows us to identify anyone who is asymptomatic COVID-19 positive. This means we can maintain a high level of protection for our cancer and trauma patients, as well as those from our other specialisms who are coming to us for outpatient appointments or procedures. Staff are tested regularly, including visiting clinicians, and those who are deemed to be at higher risk including our Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff.
One of our patients, Mr Plethero, travelled 40 miles to receive surgery to remove cancer in his jaw. He said: "Cancer is not a disease that waits for you and having the surgery meant everything." That says it all.
About the author
