Blood-disorder centre takes first patients
Reporter: MARINA BERRY
Date published: 19 July 2010
AN inside view of the spacious new £6 million unit to treat people with cancers and blood disorders
£6.3m unit will treat 7,500 cases a year
A PIONEERING new £6.3 million unit to treat patients with tumours and blood disorders at the Royal Oldham Hospital is now taking its first patients.
Around 7,000 day patients and 500 inpatients are expected to be treated each year in the purpose-built specialist clinical haematology unit.
They will have conditions such as leukaemia, lymphomas, and a range of other tumours and blood disorders.
The move has been heralded by consultant haematologist Dr Vivek Sen as a great step forward in patient care.
He said it would offer a level of care previously only found in the bigger teaching hospitals.
Dr Sen heads the specialist team which is based in the state-of-the-art facility, and is one of the largest units of its kind in the region.
It has 22 inpatient beds, which include 11 individual en suite side rooms, and its own day-case unit.
Clinical haematology is used to diagnose and treat diseases of the blood and bone marrow.
It involves the management of conditions such as autoimmune blood disorders, myeloproliferative disorder, that cause blood cells to grow abnormally in the bone marrow, and inherited blood disorders such as sickle cell disease and thalassaemia.
A large part of the work involves the diagnosis and treatment of tumours, of which leukaemia and lymphoma are the most common.
Dr Sen said: “We can’t overstate how important this new facility will be for patients with haematological disorders treated at Pennine Acute Trust.”
The trust runs four hospitals — the Royal Oldham, Rochdale Infirmary, North Manchester General Hospital, and Fairfield, Bury.
The service will have seven consultant haematologists and a number of supporting staff, and will serve patients from across the patch,
Dr Sen explained: “Although a large part of our work is to do with haematological cancers, patients with non-cancerous disorders of the blood will also make full use of the new unit, which has much to offer to both groups of patients.”
The service will work closely with the trust’s central pathology laboratory and The Christie Hospital’s new radiotherapy unit, which are both on the Royal Oldham Hospital site.
