A pioneering service bringing children’s cancer treatment closer to home has launched in the North West – the first of its kind in the UK.
A specially designed mobile cancer care unit will deliver chemotherapy and other treatments to children and young people in communities across the region. The service aims to transform how patients receive cancer treatment, reducing long journeys and time spent away from home, school, and family life.
The service is the first of its kind in the country and is being trialled as a pilot project in a partnership between the North West Children’s Cancer Operational Delivery Network (NWCCODN), charity Hope For Tomorrow, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Manchester Children’s Hospital and the region’s cancer alliances.
Hope For Tomorrow already operates mobile units for adult cancer care nationwide, but this is the first time a unit has been created specifically for children and young people, delivering treatments usually carried out in hospital day case clinics.
Each year, around 600 children undergo cancer treatment in the North West, with many facing significant travel demands due to the limited number of specialist centres. Families routinely make round trips of more than 50 miles, at an average cost of £245 per month, placing considerable financial and emotional pressure on those already navigating cancer care. The mobile service is designed to ease these burdens by delivering treatments closer to where families live. The Care Closer to Home service will be operated by Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), eventually giving coverage across the whole of the North West and North Wales. The unit will park at convenient, safe locations across the region – including supermarkets and garden centres – to ensure families can access treatment easily.
Courtesy of BBC North West
The three North West cancer alliances – Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside, and Lancashire and South Cumbria – have helped to fund the project, which has launched first at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Nurses from Alder Hey and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital will staff the unit, bringing their extensive expertise from paediatric oncology services, following thorough training and orientation, to work safely and effectively in community-based environments. Nurses have already been delivering treatments in patients’ homes on a limited basis since November.
We know that frequent hospital visits can be hugely disruptive for children and families, impacting school, work and home life. By safely bringing elements of care into the community, we’re helping to ease that burden while maintaining the same high standards of safety and support families would receive in hospital. This is about improving quality of life as well as clinical outcomes.” Dr Lisa Howell, Paediatric Oncologist and Lead Cancer Clinician at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Davina Hartley, Network Manager for the NWCCODN, said: “The NWCCODN are proud to lead this innovative Care Closer to Home project, which aims to reduce the travel burden for children with cancer and their families, improve equity of access, and address long waits at Paediatric Treatment Centre Day Case Units, issues identified by children themselves as critical to improving their care experience.”
The unit will start delivering treatment in Cheshire, Merseyside and North Wales in March and in Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria from April.
Alder Hey Children’s Charity has also funded nearly £4,000 of equipment to enhance the experience of children and young people using the unit, including toys, a TV, fridges, and iPads.