Chemo services to return to community hospital

Chemotherapy services are expected to be reinstated at a community hospital three-and-a-half years after the unit closed, a hospital charity has said.

About 60 cancer patients were affected when the unit at Wareham Hospital, Dorset, shut in 2023, with many facing journeys to Poole or Dorchester for treatment.

Following a campaign by health groups, the Friends of Wareham Hospital and South Dorset MP Lloyd Hatton, the service is expected to resume in early 2027.

Friends of Wareham Hospital, a charity supporting the hospital and local health services, is now raising funds to buy two scalp coolers, which help reduce hair loss for patients receiving treatment.

Charity chair Maggie Hardy said: "We were devastated when the previous clinic was lost, knowing how valuable it was to those patients in Purbeck who were at their most vulnerable.

"The Friends, with help from the local community, had also been able to support some equipment and set-up costs so hearing that reinstatement of the service is expected in the new year has been greeted warmly.

"Our funds are limited and a fundraising campaign will be needed to fund the £16,000-19,000 required [for the scalp coolers]."

Hatton, who raised the issue in the House of Commons, said the news that the service was returning was "very much the first big win", but added: "There is more work to be done to push services back into our community hospitals."

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent, he said: "I think, both for patients who are living with cancer, but also for their loved ones as well, this can be one of the most difficult periods in their lives.

"Long and repeated journeys to receive chemo care is one of the things that can be really draining.

"When the clinic was closed, an estimated 60 or so patients were receiving care in Wareham and were then forced to go further up the road to receive their chemotherapy treatment."

Hatton said patients, particularly in coastal areas, often travelled long distances to access care.

He said: "There's a real sense of unfairness that many of these services were rolled away several years ago.

"By restoring the chemotherapy clinic, we are starting to reverse that."

Wareham Hospital is run by Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust but the chemotherapy service on the site is run by University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD).

Dorset HealthCare said no other service changes were due to take place at Wareham Hospital.

UHD has been contacted for a comment.