Dr Richard Simcock, Consultant Clinical Oncologist & Trustee of the Sussex Cancer Fund had this to say when we asked him about Cancer Treatment in Sussex during the current Covid Crisis:
“It seems that the whole world has stopped for Covid – but we can be sure that one thing that hasn’t stopped is cancer. That’s why across Sussex we are working as hard as ever to make sure that patients with symptoms that could be due to cancer are investigated and reassured as quickly as possible. It is vitally important for us to continue this work because we know that the earlier that we catch cancer the better we can treat it. All of our diagnostic teams have worked very carefully over the last few months to make hospital assessments as safe as possible for patients referred to us; this includes consultations by telephone and video and performing examinations in areas that are separate to the parts of the hospital with Covid patients. This month we started to provide cancer surgery for Sussex patients at the Queen Victoria East Grinstead – away from the main hospitals with A&E departments.
Our new job is to keep to the people of Sussex safe from Covid but we haven’t forgotten that our other job has always been to give the best treatments we can for cancer.
The number of patient seeing referred to us with cancer symptoms has fallen dramatically in the last few months and we don’t want patients to be at home with medical problems that could be solved.
If you have symptoms you can’t explain, speak to your GP who will refer to us quickly if necessary and be reassured that we will do everything we can to investigate your problems quickly and safely.”
We would also like to add that the BSUH Trust has very clear covid and non-covid areas throughout the hospital including the emergency department. The hospital is still open for patients needing emergency care and steps have been taken in the hospital to provide safe care and treatment for non-covid patients.
The Sussex Cancer Fund would like to continue to support the work of the oncology teams treating cancer patients throughout Sussex but our income has been dramatically decreased due to the cancellation of countless fundraising events. If you can help us at all please donate.
