Singleton Hospital - Cancer Services



Singleton is a modern District General Hospital with 550 beds situated on Swansea Bay, adjacent to the campus of Swansea University. There are Acute General Medical, Care of the Elderly, General Surgical, Ophthalmology, ENT and Radiotherapy Departments in addition to High Dependency Unit, Coronary Care Unit and the Obstetric and Gynaecological Departments. A number of these departments provide sub-regional services as well as secondary care services (e.g. Ophthalmology, ENT, Dermatology). These services are supported by a General 9-bed ITU and HDU facility and a range of high quality therapeutic and diagnostic services.

The Hospital also houses the sub-regional Cancer Centre and as such provides specialist Oncology services to South West Wales, as well as complex cancer cases within the other specialties onsite (e.g. Oral Maxillofacial, ENT, Colorectal, Upper GI). The South West Wales Cancer Institute and a separate Chemotherapy Day Unit are also at Singleton.

Cancer Services
Clinical director: Mark Ramsey
Lead Cancer Clinician: Martin Rolles
The Cancer Services Directorate covers Clinical Haematology; Lymphoedema; Medical Oncology; Clinical Oncology and Palliative Care. Other services include Medical and Cancer Genetics and the Cancer Information Team. The Cancer Directorate operates within the South West Wales Cancer Network, which covers a population of around 800,000. The Network covers an area from Aberystwyth to Bridgend, and includes Morriston, Singleton, the Princess of Wales and Neath Port Talbot hospitals, as well as other hospitals run by neighbouring Health Boards.

Leading-edge technology was introduced by the South West Wales Cancer Network to improve the way chemotherapy is given to patients.

The new computerised ChemoCare Project, which went live for lung-cancer patients in September, 2008, will, on completion, offer a fully networked electronic chemotherapy prescribing solution across the South West Wales region.
The Cancer Centre at Singleton Hospital has been the initial focus of work and went live with the first tumour site, lung.
System benefits:

• Improve prescribing arrangements for chemotherapy and take home prescriptions;
• Constant availability of patient record for clinicians seeing patients outside the Cancer Centre;
• Use of standardised protocols across the region;
• Increased prescriber time available for patient care;
• Improved information access for satellite sites.

Chemocare aids the prescribing of chemotherapy by working out electronically the complicated maths-based calculations needed for prescription – reducing the risk of human error.
It also stores electronic chemotherapy records which are available on-screen whenever they are needed, rather than clinicians having to rely on the availability of old-style paper notes.
This will particularly help outreach cancer clinics away from the Network’s hospitals run more smoothly, reducing the risk of delays because notes are not available or still in transit.

 

The new Maggie’s Centre at Singleton Hospital, which opened in 2011, offers a range of services, such as support groups and one-to-one counseling with a clinical psychologist, benefits advice, nutrition workshops, relaxation sessions, tai chi and creative art therapy.

Facts about Maggie’s Centres:

• Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres aim to help people live with, through and beyond cancer

• Maggie’s Centres offer a programme of information, psychological support and relaxation to people with cancer, their friends and families. 

• Maggie’s programme of support is free of charge and operates on a drop in basis.