A "home from home". Parents from Surrey speak out as uncertainty around future of children's cancer services at the Royal Marsden continues
Denise and John Jarrett's daughter Flora spent around 100 nights in the Sutton-based hospital, whilst being treated for Ewing's Sarcoma.
A couple from Woking in Surrey, whose 10 year old daughter spent around 100 nights at the Royal Marsden in Sutton, have described the hospital as a "home from home" and say that it would be an "absolute nightmare" for families in Surrey to get to proposed new sites for children's cancer services.
Denise and John Jarrett's daughter Flora was treated at the Royal Marsden having been diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a type of primary bone cancer.
“She went from being a perfectly healthy, normal 10 year old to being a very unwell little girl pretty much overnight.” said Denise.
“The care we had at Marsden, was just second-to-none really. It became a home from home for us… the whole setup at the Royal Marsden is just fantastic… we were very very pleased with the care that we had there.”
John highlighted that staff at the Sutton-based hospital helped their family. “We had the relationship with the clinical and professional people and the staff, the admin people.. it made all the difference, it helped us go through the most difficult time in our life and we know that’s the same for many other families.”
Flora had all of her treatment at the Royal Marsden over a period of around 10 months. She had 14 rounds of chemotherapy and 25 sessions of radiotherapy, and she’s now in remission.
"The thought of having to take her to London on public transport would just have been an absolute nightmare.”
There's uncertainty around the future of children's cancer services at the Sutton-based hospital. It is now a requirement that all Principal Treatment Centres for children’s cancer should have an onsite paediatric intensive care unit, which is why the services are being moved. Consultations are currently taking place asking where the future children’s cancer centre should be – with the options being either Evelina’s London Children’s Hospital in Lambeth or St George’s Hospital in Tooting. The public consultation will close on the 18th December.
However, online petitions are opposing the planned closure of the services. the #MustBeMarsden petition, launched in February 2020, has over 35,000 signatures. A more recent petition, called #HearTheMarsdenKids, that started in October this year has over 7,500 signatures.
The petitions have criticised the planned closure and relocation – saying that “there is no guarantee that the new service would exceed, or indeed even meet, the current world-leading treatment programmes in place at The Royal Marsden” and that “Travel times for the vast majority of patients and their families will be negatively impacted”.
A statement from Chris Tibbs, who’s the Medical Director of the NHS South East said that "Our proposals are designed to create a future children’s cancer centre which has the experience and expertise of the existing service but is on the same site as a children’s intensive care unit" adding that they "understand there is huge strength of feeling about moving services from The Royal Marsden Hospital."
Denise and John could drive Flora to the Royal Marsden, but they say that getting to either of the new proposed sites would be very difficult, if you’re coming from Surrey.
“We had a lot of times where Flora was feeling really tired, really unwell, really sick. She was also very neutropenic throughout her treatment. You have to be very cautious with infections and things like that and the thought of having to take her to London on public transport would just have been an absolute nightmare. I don't know how you'd do it to be honest”
John added that it would be a challenging journey. “It would be impossible for us as a family… we couldn’t get to the London hospitals easily from Surrey, it would mean changing trains, you couldn’t go directly to them, you’d have to change trains at Clapham Junction or other places.”
The Royal Marsden say that they don’t expect the service to move “until 2026 at the earliest”.
"Having cancer services and intensive care on one site will end hospital transfers of very sick children from the specialist centre who need, or might need intensive care.
You can read the full statement from Chris Tibbs below.
“Our proposals are designed to create a future children’s cancer centre which has the experience and expertise of the existing service but is on the same site as a children’s intensive care unit, surgical teams and other children’s specialists. This is essential for the services to continue to provide the very best care for children with cancer – care that meets the latest national clinical standards. This will deliver a service for children and their families that retains the best of the service currently provided, while going further and ensuring world class care that's fit for the future.
"We understand there is huge strength of feeling about moving services from The Royal Marsden Hospital. To deliver the best possible care however, it's a national clinical requirement to have a children’s intensive care unit on site, which is why the service is being relocated. Having cancer services and intensive care on one site will end hospital transfers of very sick children from the specialist centre who need, or might need intensive care; minimise the number of children going into intensive care; have more services on the same site than now, improving experience for children and families when they require intensive care and other specialist children’s services.
"Whichever of the two proposed locations is chosen, our vision is for the future centre to build on the strengths of the existing service - providing high quality care by expert staff, good access to clinical trials, a family friendly centre, strong links with groundbreaking research working closely with the Institute of Cancer Research and achieving world-class outcomes for children with cancer for decades to come.”