Treatment of cancer patients (FOI)

​Request

Please can you advise on the following:

A
How many cancer patients were sent from the Channel Islands to Southampton for treatment?

a) in 2016
b) in 2017
c) in 2018 so far

B
Can you give any information on the locations in which these patients stayed while travelling over from the Channel Islands?

a) the address of the hotel or alternate accommodation
b) the length of their stay
c) the cost of their stay

Response

A

There is a difference between the total referrals and the number of unique patients as a small number of patients were referred to Southampton more than once in a year.

B
States of Jersey has negotiated a range of NHS contracts for the provision of specialist treatments across England.

Where patients require to be provided oncology treatment on a more specialist level, a number of NHS Hospitals are used where a specialist approach is required and where there is a contractual arrangement in place with States of Jersey.

a) Southampton General Hospital is the main contracted provider and accommodation used is Executive Serviced Apartments.

Other hospitals used include Addenbrookes Cambridge, Bournemouth and London Hospitals (e.g. Barts, Royal Marsden, Great Ormond Street and others).

b) Patient length of stay is dependent on the treatment programme provided and the individual patient requirement. Therefore on average a stay can vary between two and five days for any one period of treatment. This may apply over a number of weeks.

c) As the patient stay varies from patient to patient the price of the accommodation varies and is dependent on whether the patient is on their own, requires the support of a carer, is supported by a family member etc. These costs would be factored into the individual patient costs.

In addition, some accommodation is contracted on an annual basis and therefore each patient period of treatment and their individual circumstances would be a fractional factor of that contractual costs.

This cost is therefore too variable and individual to the patient to provide a defined figurative range.