Choosing who gets chemo during covid 19 outbreak

Hi Knowledgeispower,

Unfortunately we are in exceptionally difficult times and your Mum’s experience could sadly become much more common. The stark choice facing the medical teams may well soon be (if it is not already) a decision around who has the best long term survival potential. That is an incredibly sad situation for us to be in as a society which is why the target has to be those idiots who are not taking the isolation guidance seriously. We must keep people out of hospital so that the medical teams are not faced with truly horrendous decisions to make.

Wishing you and your Mum all the very best

Greg

Hi Knowledgeispower20, I am sure that this was indeed a shock to hear this.

Coming from a blood cancer background the delay of chemo can often happen for many reasons.

This will be done based on who needs the treatment urgently and who can wait that touch longer as their cancer presentation reflects this decisions.

It is also most likely the realignment of resources at the moment so again they are looking a the ones who can safely wait..... I know that this is a simple way to look at this but it's all we have to go on and lets look for this situation to improve quickly

((Hugs)) to you and your mum form a safe distance.

Hi I have read an NHS guidence putting cancer patients in to 6 categories and yes I am upset too because I am on chemo responding will.At the moment having chemo break and have no clue if I will continue or not because I am responding well.i dont really care much about the virus i am more worried about the cancer.I will fight back going to check for legal advice.I find it disquisting to leave some people just to suffer and die because are for example incurable.There is no excuse.

Hi Janet,

I definitely feel your pain and I definitely empathize around how horrendously unsettling all this must be.

The problem we have is that the medical resources are finite. There are only a set number of doctors and a set number of nurses. I really hope it doesn’t come to what Italy is experiencing, but there is a risk there will come a point where the medical teams have to decide where to put the resources available to them. Which is why I think it is so important we focus on this virus - we need to keep as many people out of hospital as possible so that the NHS doesn’t fall over.

These are deeply unsettling times and so I sincerely hope that we can get on top of this quickly and get back to more safer times very soon.

All the best

Greg

Hi all, 

I would personally not mind if I was told that I couldn't have any more of my chemo. I will have had 4 doses by the end of the next 2 weeks and feel as it is a "mop up" course and I will have had 1/2 that is enough for me. If the Dr tells me I will have to have it at a later date when the NHS is able to treat me so be it. I will go back to work as soon as possible as I am a Nursing sister and feel very upset that I can't help my colleagues at present. I know what pressure they are under with this virus and all the completely idiotic people not taking any notice of the government's guidance making it worse.

Stay safe indoors, 

Hi everyone

My weekly doses of Fluralolicil or F2U I think it is was stopped the beginning of the week after a consultation with the oncologist. I think mine was just the belt n braces as the tumor removed 95% and the chemo was due to some cancer cells in the vascular veins. I was due to have 30 weekly doses and had already had 20 of those. So I have now got to have a CT scan at some point to see if I will need any further treatment.

Stay safe

Mark

I have been talking with a few Senior NHS Consultant friends who all work in the same hospital and all have various numbers of cancer patients.

Their main challenge is the lack of staff, so many have had to go on 7 or 14 day isolation due to showing signs of the virus but could well be the flu so they are hoping that more testing can be done so it can improve the staff levels.

Our Macmillan Treatment Unit is stretched for enough trained chemo nurses as there are a lot on lockdown..... but they are doing a great job under the very challenging circumstances.

One Consultant friend with a good number of Cancer patients had only himself and a nurse in the clinic (no admin) as all the rest were out of the system so it took time to get a redeployment of staff (hence elective surgery etc is being put back) and he was working through re-arranging appointments and prioritising who is in more need of treatment and who can wait for a period of time.

Such a hard time for everyone in the NHS.

The chemo unit at our hospital has been moved to a nearby sixth form college, but is now serving two towns. Mum had her first chemo today and came home incredibly Ill...I've never seen vomiting like it!! Been asleep for 3 hours solid now .....they told mum unit had been moved for safety...but it turns out they just want the space in the hospital!!

I still would prefer to be somewhere else than in a hospital treating the virus  - you do need to talk with her team about the sickness as they can try other anti sickness drugs.

I'm not in the UK but I had a similar conversation with my haemotologist at the end of last week. 

They are having to make some very tough choices at the moment.  I was half expecting that my remaining cycles would be cancelled.  There have been some changes made to my treatment plan to minimise my risk and that's a bit unsettling.

I do wonder to what extent these changes will be rolled back once the crisis is over.  Will we return to treating as many people as possible or will we triage patients more harshly?  My local infusion unit was stretched to breaking point before this happened and changing the criteria for treatment would be one way of making the numbers look better.