I read with absolute incredibility that Boots are going to do our chemo. No I have not been drinking. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1349687/NHS-reform-Cancer-sufferers-given-chemotherapy-Boots-branches.html
Why were we not told about this when Paul Burstow MP visited Macmillan? That would have been an important discussion.
Boots is nearer than the hospital – it is the only thing I can find in its favour.
On the off side:
1. Parking needs to be immediately outside. Ambulances can drive through pedestrian areas - mere mortals have to find a parking space – and who feels like walking a distance. Where are the wheelchairs. What about the parking fees. Does Andrew Lansley the Health Secretary who has made this agreement with Boots realise that we do not have ministerial cars with a chauffeur and free parking. There is a limit on how long one can stay at a public metered parking slot. I suspect Lansley is used to private health care too.
2. There is certainly no room at the present Boots for these services.
3. Who is going to prescribe the anti sickness tablets. Will there be doctors on site too. What about reactions to chemo.
4. Who is going to provide the 24 hours emergency care.
5. Who is going to take care of the records – hospitals lose them even under the same roof.
6. What is going to happen to the Macmillan services in the hospitals. No one is going to make special visits to a hospital just to go to the centres. Macmillan nurses do not do nursing so are unlikely to go to off site Boots centres.
My lovely Macmillan nurse is key in my treatment. She understands my fears. If I have a problem it is her who always sorts things. I don’t want her flitting from hospital to Boots.
Is this a plot for next year’s pantomime or Carry On film? On the other hand if Boots were to do walk in ultrasound scans, particularly for ovarian cancer I would have been impressed. As you can guess I am not all all impressed and wonder what other cancer patients think of this scheme.
