Nottingham chemotherapy treatments halted by staff shortages

The trust said it was prioritising care based on "clinical benefit"

A hospital trust has had to cancel chemotherapy treatments for some cancer patients due to a serious shortage of specialist staff.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs two hospitals in the city, said it postponed treatments for 49 patients on one day this week.

The problem has been caused by short and long-term sickness, and vacancies.

The trust said it was "deeply sorry" and had "prioritised care based on the likely clinical benefit".

'Really challenging'

Simon Roe, clinical director of cancer and associated services at the trust, which runs the QMC and City hospitals in Nottingham, gave a "heartfelt apology" to patients who had been affected.

"From the beginning of this month we have faced a really challenging situation with staffing levels on our chemotherapy suites, which has mainly affected specialist nurses that we need to administer the chemotherapy," he said.

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Mr Roe said the trust was 30% down on the number of specialist nurses needed to run a full service.

On Thursday he said staff had called 49 patients to cancel their treatment, representing about 10% of their patient list.

"It has been incredibly difficult for our patients, their families and for the staff involved in this service," he said.

"They have worked extremely hard over the past 18 months to maintain our cancer services so to be in this situation is really, really difficult and extremely upsetting for members of the team."

The trust said it was 30% down on specialist staff and could not deliver a full service

The trust said it was using guidance produced by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) during the pandemic to select which patients would have their treatment delayed.

Medical director Dr Keith Girling said: "Our clinical teams are prioritising care based on the likely clinical benefit. We are deeply sorry for the concern and upset this will cause."

Mr Roe said staff were "doing absolutely everything we can to get the service back up and running" and he was optimistic they could offer treatments to everyone again soon.

'Relief for some'

Annie Walton, head of the Nottingham Maggie's Centre, which provides free cancer support said they had seen a mixed response from patients.

"Some are disappointed, very upset and some are angry, but some are quite relieved that they are having a break and the choice has been taken away from them," she said.

"With chemo comes a multitude of problems - memory loss, mobility problems, fatigue, nausea, appetite loss - and some people are looking for some quality end-of-life in the last years of their life, so they are relieved.

"The pandemic has been really difficult for patients with cancer and their families, and now a lot of hospitals are struggling to roll out full programmes of cancer treatment.

"So we are still there to support them and help them along with that."