Our paediatric oncology service has a small dedicated team, including a consultant and specialist nurse, to help care for local children diagnosed with cancer.
We care for our paediatric oncology patients on Outwood Ward, the paediatric ward at East Surrey Hospital.
We share care for our patients with Primary Treatment Centres, who provide the main cancer treatment. This means we’re sometimes referred to as a ‘level 1 Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Unit (POSCU)’.
The main Primary Treatment Centres we refer to for cancer treatment include The Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton; St Georges Hospital, Tooting; Great Ormond Street Hospital, London and University College London Hospital (UCLH). Our team provides local supportive care for the child and their family, during the child's cancer journey.
We also work very closely with the local children’s community nursing teams, who are able to provide support and care in the community for the child.
Children suspected of having cancer are first referred to the paediatric team at East Surrey Hospital for an assessment and preliminary investigations. They may initially be seen in the paediatric outpatient clinic or on the child assessment unit.
Referrals are received usually from GPs via a cancer referral pathway, the paediatric outpatient clinics or the emergency department.
The child will then be referred to the Primary Treatment Centre (PTC) for further investigations and treatment.
There are different types of cancers in children and treatment depends on the type of cancer. Cancer treatment may include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery or a combination of these. This will be mainly provided by the Primary Treatment Centres we mention above, through inpatient and outpatient services.
Currently, we do not offer chemotherapy at East Surrey Hospital but hope to establish this service in the near future. However, we do co-ordinate the care of the child and will be the first point of call when a child with cancer who is undergoing treatment, is unwell. Services we provide include treating infections, administering transfusions, antibiotics, anti-fungal and anti-viral infusions, and organising investigations during cancer treatment.
Sometimes, a child undergoing cancer treatment may be too unwell to be cared for at East Surrey Hospital. In such a case, the child will be transferred by an experienced team, the South Thames Retrieval Service (STRS), to a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
From the point of diagnosis, the paediatric oncology team takes care of all the patient’s health needs, even if not directly linked to the cancer, until 6 months after completion of treatment.
The length of treatment and follow-up varies depending on the type of cancer. Once treatment is completed, follow up will be at the Primary Treatment Centre alone or shared with us, where children will be reviewed in a dedicated clinic in the children's outpatient department at regular intervals for a period of time.
If a child is going on holiday, either in the UK or abroad, the paediatric oncology team will endeavour to contact the local paediatric oncology centre to help support the child while they are away. Similarly, our paediatric oncology team will support visiting children to the area, when contacted by the referring paediatric oncology team.