Hi, Radiotherapy is not available at my local hospital and I have the choice of 3 locations to go to for this treatment, all about a 90 minute drive away. Other than the practicalities of getting there, what other factors do you suggest I consider in deciding on which hospital to be treated at? Thanks.
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The only thing that I would suggest is to find out if you can how many machines each hospital has and how modern they are. I only had five sessions, the first four were at a big but old London Hospital where there were two machines with one or other breaking down every day, so my waiting time could be 2-3 hours each day. The fifth session was at another big London hospital in a different health authority, which had four modern machines and I was in and out like a flash. It may help you decide.
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Great answer from @Tigress . I would also find out if there’s one hospital that has a shorter waiting time for the treatment to start than others. Also as you are travelling think about how you are going to get there and back what kind of transport links there are . If you are driving check into car parks . It can be tiring travelling to and from with the treatment as well and I stayed with a relative which cut my commute down from almost 2 hours each way to under 40 minutes each way . One of my friends booked a B+B and stayed in a pretty little town about 30 minutes drive from from her treatment centre . If you are in a support group or know anyone that has had radiotherapy at any of the centres then ask if they would recommend them. Xx
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If you’re bothered by the thought of having tattoos, there are some machines that don’t require them.
Also, like @Tigress said, ask how many machines they have and what they do if one breaks down. My centre only had 1, so the option was either travel to another centre 45 minutes away or add another day to the end of my treatment. I had 2 or 3 days out of 15 that I had to drive to be treated elsewhere because I couldn’t face pushing the end date out.
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Yep, I 2nd @Tigress, my nearest hospital always had issues with one of the machines breaking down causing delays, and they even wanted to cancel one of the days in my last week and tag it onto the following Monday rather than finishing on Friday as a machine was broken- they found me a slot when I said if they did that I wouldn’t be in on the Monday and would be doing one less instead. Could not emotionally face extending to the following week.
I was only a 20 min drive up the motorway from it and was quite capable to drive myself there and back daily, and did a long 2.5 hr each way drive for a music festival the weekend before my my last 4th week - doable, but tiring.
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Yeah, I had a good cry when they told me they wanted to add on two days at the end which would push it out to four weeks instead of three and they found me a slot at the other centre so I could finish on time. When you’ve been going through treatment for a long time, any delay or change to what you had in your head was the plan just seems exponentially worse than it would have been if you weren’t dealing with a life changing diagnosis and treatment that’s really rough.
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@ell1 I second what JoanneN said about checking car parks if you are going by car. Parking was very difficult at the hospital I went to and added to the stress each day.
I ended up getting various friends to take me everyday so they could sort the parking while I went in for treatment. Meant they could even drive away from the hospital if they couldn’t find parking and come back for me once I was done. Fortunately I only lived 20 mins from the hospital so I realise this might not be an option for you. However, what I am saying is if one of the 3 options you have has easier parking than another that might help decide for you as well as it definitely helps ease the stress and anxiety not having to worry about parking.
Hope you’re able to make a choice that works well for you and treatment is done soon.
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Hi everyone, thank you for your useful comments. They will be helpful in deciding where to have treatment.
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