Hi, I’ll be having chemo after having a cancerous ovarian cyst removed. I’m v fortunate as the cancer was only in the cyst and the chemo (is only a precaution. What I would like to know is whether I should have the chemo under NHS or privately. I understand that some NHS treatment rooms could be quite depressing and considering I’d be spending some time there, this is a concern. However, I have also heard that chemo is better under NHS. Please advise and let me have your thoughts esp those of you that had experienced both. I’m in London and the difference in the journey is probably 20 mins each way, Princess Grace being further.
Mayy I’m glad to say that I have not experienced both but I am going though chemo privately and my mother is going through it on the NHS - the experience is different she seems to have less immediate access to her consultants and the process from diagnosis to treatment was slower.
I am private at the Rosshall hospital in Glasgow and the speed of action is very quick so less time to worry and fret and I have the home telephone numbers of my consultants !! not that I would dream of phoning them but… and I can phone the hospital at any time and speak to a nurse/consultant that I know personally which my mother doesn’t get. Also I have better drugs for sickness/thrush etc.
I see my consultant before each treatment and we have a chat about side effects and ongoing treatment and he gets me any drugs/change to drugs that I feel I need to make life more bearable - my mother relys more on her GP which is of course less immediate - although if she needs a doctor to the house they do come quickly.
My treatment is in a private room which can be quite isolating cause there is no-one to chat to however my hubby can be with me or a pal it is my call. My mother gets treated at the same time as 2-3 other ladies so she chats to them
the drugs are the same so from that regard I don’t understand why someone would tell you that “chemo was better under the NHS” - Epi/Tax/EC/FEC it’s all the same no matter where !
So different experience - hopefully same outcome - when I had the choice it was which ever was faster - NHS said 2-3 weeks Rosshall said tonight so I went !
I’m having my chemo through the nhs at the Marsden hosp. The atmosphere there is great and we always have a giggle. The only downside is the wait to see the doc after bloods then for the chemo to be made and a vacancy in the chemo room. My understanding of private chemo was that they could give it in your home. I would love that but only because of the wait.
I had my chemo earlier this year on the NHS. I saw the oncologist a few days before every chemo and was able to review my meds i.e. sickness and mouth ulcers.One time I had a problem I was able to access the unit immediately and was seen by a doctor within the hour.
The treatment was given in a communal room with several other people but was always dealt with reasonably quickly and had the advantage of chatting to people in a similar situation. The unit was small and I had the same small team of nurses for my entire treatment.
If at any time I am in the position that I needed further chemo my experience was a positive one and I would not be daunted by returning to the unit.
I am in the NHS system and happy with my treatment.
I have experienced chemo on both the NHS and privately. In 2003 I had 6 FEC chemo (every 3 weeks) under the NHS and had excellent treatment and care but very long days at the hospital - usually at least 6 hours each visit and lots of waiting around between blood tests and seeing doctors (usually a different one each time and very rarely my consultant)and waiting for the chemo to be made up.
When I was diagnosed with secondaries last year I had a BUPA policy through my then husband’s work and had 22 lots of weekly Taxol between March and November last year under BUPA. The drugs came from the same cancer hospital as before so no difference with drugs but I had every treatment at home with the Healthcare at Home nursing service with the same nurse for the whole 9 months apart from on 3 occasions. The nurse got to know me and was extremely efficient and quick and was at my home for a maximum of 3 hours and I had the treatment in bed and was able to go off to sleep immediately afterwards instead of having a 36 mile round trip each week. Also my husband left me after my first lot of 8 weeks of chemo and so I would have had to rely on others to take me back and forth to the hospital twice a week for bloods as well as chemo. For me having the treatment at home was wonderful and helped a lot but the downside is you are isolated a bit from the hospital and contact with other patients. I managed to continue working part-time throughout my treatment which I doubt I’d have been able to with long days at the hospital. I also now always see my consultant and am able to talk on the phone to him which was never the case before but I must emphasize that I have no complaint at all about the quality treatment on the NHS but you are able to be treated much more as an individual privately and learn to trust the same nurse and they get to really know you.
Anyway that is my experience.
Good luck with your decision and your treatment.
Anne
I had chemo privately 4 years ago because I would have AC/Taxol but on NHS I’d have had AC/CMF so no contest.
Private means a private room on your own, less waiting about and the same chemo nurses. My local hospital is very busy and I was told it was quite hectic with lots of waiting around.I rarely saw my oncologist but he’d ring me if there was anything I needed to know.
The down side was that I didn’t have 24hour access to a chemo ward for advice and would have needed to go to A & E if I was really worried outside office hours. Also, I had to organise and pay for my own wig and didn’t meet anyone else with breast cancer so I felt quite isolated.Also, you have the constant worry that there might be a dispute about payment of bills.
It’s not a straightforward decision but over all, I feel lucky I have access to private care.
Kelley
Strange how this differs. Just completed my chemo (privately) and don’t think I was treated any differently than an NHS patient (and didn’t want to be). Had bloods done on day of chemo and saw ONC every time (perhaps you don’t see him every 3 weeks if NHS). I will also have Herceptin for a year and could opt to have this at home, but want to keep my home cancer free if you know what I mean - this is my haven, so I go to the unit. My veins aren’t too good, so didn’t want to risk having it at home if the Nurse couldn’t cannulate. Nurses in the unit are fab, unit is lovely and I sit with everyone else. I could have a private room, but opted not too. As I started out on the private route with the surgery my view was to continue this way and my health ins are happy to pay.
The way I look at it, I am saving the NHS some much needed money!
x
Hi - haven’t posted before, but just wanted to say that I have been offered chemo in my own home as part of my private health care. This does seem to be a definite advantage from a time perspective. Starting on 7th Jan - so enjoying Xmas before I think about it all!!
I’m having my treatment privately as my insurer would cover it and the speed of diagnosis and treatment was faster.
I saw my GP when I found my lump and had an appointment at the breast clinic the same evening where I was given a 99% certain diagnosis of BC. That was confirmed 2 days later when the results of the core biopsy were known.
I elected to continue my treatment privately so had CT, MRI and bone scans which showed no spread and then was referred on to the oncologist as my lump is too large for surgery at present so I’m having chemo to shrink it - 4xFEC + 12xTaxol.
I started chemo 2 1/2 weeks after my first appointment and have found the experience very good. I have had a Portacath fitted to spare my veins which has been great. Pre-chemo blood test results were back within 20 minutes and from arriving at the chemo suite at 9am I was home by 12.30. I have my chemo in a private room with a tv, coffee and biscuits are supplied on arrival and a sandwich and more coffee before leaving. I have one to one care from the same two nurses each time and they carry a mobile phone 24 hours a day so I can always contact them if needed and know the person I am talking to. I feel very confident in my treatment and the support and care provided.
I do also have experience of NHS chemotherapy as my best friend had treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma a few years ago and I went with her for many of her chemo sessions. Her treatment was excellent but more impersonal. The sessions took longer as there could be a long wait for the initial blood test and a couple of hours before the result was available and a spot in the chemo room was free. Chemo was given in a room with 6-8 other people but there was very little conversation between patients so I don’t know that that was an advantage, might be better in a smaller setting though.
So far I’m more than happy with my choice to go privately mainly for speed and comfort but also because I feel that because they don’t have so much emphasis on cost control they are more likely to be proactive rather than reactive in their approach. Examples of this are that I was given a Portacath to protect my veins before my 1
I was given a Portacath to proctect my veins before my 1st chemo rather than after a problem developed, also I have an injection of Neulasta after each chemo to boost my white cell count, again this has been from the 1st chemo so not a reaction to a previous problem.
I’m certainly saving the NHS some money as bills so far, from first appointment on Nov 9th are now over £7k!
I had no health insurance and couldn’t contemplate self-funding the cost of chemo - which is truly prohibitive. I saw my oncologist on 5 of the 6 occasions I had chemo and he was generous with his time- so I can’t think that I would have seen much more of him if I’d been a private patient- in fact he told me himself that he tried to treat all of his patients equally.
For me, it was the experience of the chemo suite that was horrendous and I would have been VERY happy to have paid money to have avoided that. It seems as if some people like to have other patients around them and it actually helps them, to share the experience… but I really would have liked a lot more privacy …and not to have spent so many hours and hours waiting around.
Having had friends who had private treatment I know that their nurses were just as expert (and the nurses’ attitude to their patients more appropriate than that of some who dealt with me). Treatment time was so much quicker (one of my friends had hers in her lunch-break) I certainly would have opted for private treatment if I had had the chance.
Hi am being treated at Addenbrookes, cambridge on the NHS, husband self employed so no other choice - however i have to say that i do not for one minute believe that the care i have got would have been any better private. I went in for ‘one stop’ clinic at Hospital on 6th May, got results on the 11th, had first chemo on the 14th, week later had portacath fitted, on every occassion i got to see my oncologist and breast care nurse who always gave me as much time as i needed and the people i have met in clinics and wards along the way have helped me remain positive and vibrant - i think a lot of it has to do with the standard of hospital that you would be going to if on the NHS - at the end of the day you have to make the decision that you feel the most comfortable with - i personally have been so impressed with the NHS.
Karen x
I have had all my treatment (6 x TAC) at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and can say that I would definitely recommend that as it meant that I met up with other women (and men) undergoing chemo so could chat and compare notes whilst waiting for and during treatment, also chat to the different oncology staff each time. Also there is a Mustard Tree centre on the floor above Oncology so I was able to go up and see them. So lots of support from different people. It’s also nice to get out of the house as I had to spend so much time at home over the 4 months because of the side effects of chemo.
I got my Chemo at an NHS hospital in a room shared by other patients. They sat on chairs in a semi circle and they could chat to each other, while i had to sit by a bed with the curtains around me, dont know why that was and I never asked at the time. One nurse used to open the chemo packet with her teeth! and she once dropped a cotton swob on the floor and picked it back up and used it on me! I was feeling sick at the time and felt uncomfortable stating the obvious to her, though i wish i did speak up. I should send her a pair of sissors for xmas!
I used to get my bloods done before my chemo, on average I waited about 1 and 1/2 hours before they got the bloods back. There was one time i waited 4 hours, think they forgot about me that day. It normally took about 1 hour to administer the chemo.
If I had the money I would hve gone private, that NHS nurse does not rate very good in my eyes. I had three nurses and the other two were great.
I had my chemo through private health insurance this year - Healthcare at Home came to my house to do it and as has been said earlier, I had the same nurse every time except once when she was on holiday. From my point of view it was great because I have small children and a husband who wouldn’t/didn’t take time off work so I couldn’t afford to be stuck in the hospital for hours when they needed collecting from school. This way I was able to schedule my chemo for while they were at school, I went about my business all day, the nurse came and did the necessary - was here for a maximum of an hour - and then went. They even came and did my bloods at home a couple of days before each dose and took them into the hospital to be tested. I had a portacath fitted prior to treatment, which also seems to be difficult to get on the NHS in some areas because it’s the most expensive type of central line.
I saw my Onc a few days before each dose to discuss side effects etc and I would say one benefit was that she was very willing to prescribe medication for everything I was experiencing - there was no pressure on funds or reluctance to prescribe at all so my side effects were well managed.
So far as chemo being better on the NHS, I had exactly the same protocol I would have had on the NHS (E-CMF) and exactly the same drugs in exactly the same strengths.
For me it worked well and I’d definitely recommend Healthcare at Home to anyone.
I’m having my chemo privately, and apart from the usual conveniences, there is one very good reason to go privately if you can - some drugs are not available on the NHS. I will be having a year on the new wonder drug Avastin, which is extremely expensive (about £150K) and only available privately. I believe through my father’s recent chemo experience that some of the better drugs for SEs are also not normally given on the NHS.
I have also found not having to wait around in busy waiting rooms when your immunity is low is very helpful. My surgeon and onc gave me their mobile numbers and have said call at any time, which is very reassuring.
Hi all, I have nothing but praise for the NHS. I have my chemo at the Bristol centre (if treated here, you can have the choice of onsite chemo or chemo at home if you wish). I opted to go to the centre as (sad as it is) its a trip out of the house and you get to talk to other people.
Chemo is given in a communal room, but you have your own little space,so can chat to others or just have some quiet time. The nurses are lovely as is everyone at this centre without exception.I have my bloods checked again before chemo starts and it takes about 10 mins to get the result if that.
My appointments are always on time and am out after about 1 1/2 hours, there are also people from the Red Cross who come and give you a hand or neck massage and chat to you whilst having your chemo.
I see my consultant the week before chemo and have bloods checked plus sort out any other problems and am always prescribes any meds I need for these problems. As pressured as they are in clinic I am always given all the time I need, as is everyone else, and no one seems to mind the wait you often have (after all we are all there for more or less the same reason). There is coffee a TV and mags to keep you occupied.
I dont have access to phone no’s of my consultant, but I have been given phone numbers of where to phone for help 24/7, I also have a wonderful BC nurse at the hospital who I can contact.
I am a nurse myself and have experiece of NHS and private both as a patient and a nurse. Apart from the fancy trimmings you get as a private patient I dont think I would have had any better treatment going privately and if had the choice of either I would pick NHS without a doubt.
Regards
Jane
I also have my treatment at Bristol Onc. I cannot fault the service. The staff are very friendly and efficient. I have not had to wait around at all. The chemo takes about 1 1/2 hours. Drinks are provided if you want them, both for patient and carer. I haven’t made use of the Red Cross massage yet, but I am booked in for pamper therapy in February.
I had major sickness with the 1st chemo. When I saw onc before the next session there was no problem about upping my drugs. When I go for the next session I will mention the major chemo mouth problem and I am sure I will come away with more drugs for that. When I was admitted for 2 nights because of the sickness, the nurses couldn’t do enough to help.
I dread to think how much my treatment has cost so far. I am so glad we have an NHS and don’t have to worry about whether insurance is going to pay for it all.
cwm
I also had major mouth problems, I mentioned this at pre assessement clinic and when I next went for chemo was given a coure of Fluconazole to take, it did the trick.
Love Jane