Same-day service at Velindre Cancer Centre helps patients suffering side effects of treatment

  • Report by ITV Cymru Wales correspondent Dean Thomas-Welch.

A new specialised same-day service helping cancer patients who develop adverse side effects as a result of their treatment, is also reducing pressures on A&E departments.

The service, launched at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, provides early detection of immune-related reactions, also known as ‘toxicities’. It means these side effects can be treated sooner.

It also helps patients avoid repeated admissions to the emergency department.

Sharon Bettinson from Caerphilly is currently undergoing immunotherapy at Velindre. She said the side effects from her cancer is causing a greater impact than the cancer itself.

Dr Jo Ocen, Consultant Oncologist, said the side effects of immunotherapy can be "very serious".

"Ten days after I started getting the effects. I had a rash, a severe rash all over my body", she explained.

"I had swollen eyes, I to have a pacemaker fitted because I had a heart block and a clot on my lung."

Now, if her immunotherapy makes her unwell, Sharon has access to on-day specialised emergency treatment. It means she no longer has to go through the complex process of receiving treatments at A&E departments.

Sharon continued: "I phoned the helpline and they got back to me then within 20 minutes telling me what to do - to come into Velindre and they put me on a drip of steroids."

Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the body's own immune system to recognise and destroy cancer.

However, it comes with a range of side effects as the revved up immune system can also fight the body's healthy cells.

Dr Jo Ocen, Consultant Oncologist, explains: "These side effects can be immune related so basically inflammation that can affect different parts of the body essentially, and sometimes these side effects can be very serious."

Hayley Mian said patients who would have come to an A&E department in crisis would "potentially have had a very different outcome."

The project is aimed at improving the experience of patients receiving cancer treatment, as well as reducing the pressure general emergency services.

This new service has led to 200,000 people in Wales in 2023 getting urgent emergency treatment in the right place the first time.

The latest NHS data revealed the number of individual patients awaiting treatment in Wales has reached record highs.

But it is hoped the £25 million Welsh Government initiative will help stabilise A&E waiting times and ambulance handover times.

Hayley Mian, Specialist Nurse, said: "Those are patients that would have presented to an A&E department in crisis and would potentially have had a very different outcome if they hadn't been mopped up by our service."

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