I may be relocating to the Plymouth area and would be under the care of Derriford Hospital. I was wondering if there are any experiences of the BCU there - pros and cons would be great. Many thanks.
I am being treated at derriford breast cancer unit, diagnosis/ultra sound/biopsy and surgery and only have good things to say about them. Car parking is a nightmare though.
I was treated for triple negative breast cancer at Derriford throughout last year.
The specialist breast cancer unit is the Primrose Centre. That’s where I was diagnosed and had surgery. They were great, friendly, efficient, helpful and smiley, even though ridiculously busy.
For chemo and radiotherapy I was transferred to the oncology department and Fal Ward which was a very different experience. Again they were terribly busy, but my experience was that it was all pretty impersonal. There was no assigned nurse for me to contact if needed, no guidance through all the various procedures just pamphlets handed out, appointments were often very delayed (an hour or more) and there was no hint of any completion or signing off when my treatment finished. I felt like I was just a lump of meat on their conveyor belt, in some ways an inconvenience to the staff’s daily routine. Some individual staff were lovely but I never saw the same person twice and the overall ethos was very institutional. I was not even allowed to choose appointment times for either chemo or radiotherapy, I was told to “take it or leave it”.
Oncology were having lots of building work done last year, and I understand that there should have been 7 specialist nurses but there were only 4, and one of those was long-term sick. I sincerely hope things have improved since then.
There is a superb Macmillan cancer support centre, the Mustard Tree, at the hospital which I’m very happy to recommend.
Snozzle (I like your town!) is right about the awful parking but there’s a decent Park and Ride facility not too far away and I found the city busses to be pretty reliable.
I’m really sorry I cannot give Derriford a glowing review. I had a horrible time during treatment, which isn’t a nice experience even in the best of hospitals. Derriford Hospital is old and run down, they’ve had critical incidents almost every day this winter and they only seem to keep going because of the goodwill and additional work of most staff. It’s symptomatic of our poor NHS at the moment.
I wish you all the very best with your ongoing treatment, and a much better time at Derriford than I had.
Thanks very much for the information and I am sorry that oncology was rubbish. I am currently being treated in Torbay Hospital who have been brilliant so far. They even have dedicated free parking spaces next to the unit and parking is free for anyone undergoing treatment for cancer. Had surgery 3 weeks ago and have my first oncology appointment next week before a course of radiotherapy. If it is better than Derriford I may stay at Torbay and just put up with the travelling ! Many thanks again and I wish you all the best for the future.
