Two new nurse roles have been created in a first for Milton Keynes to improve the way some cancer patients are treated in the borough.
The nurses will split their time between Milton Keynes University Hospital where cancer treatments take place, and Willen Hospice, allowing them to work in both settings that are widely acknowledged by nursing professionals as being very different.
Normally, nurses are based either at the hospital or at the hospice.
The idea behind this new approach is that all people with cancer will have a nurse specialist that they know and recognise, making care more consistent for them.
The new nurses will also be better able to track their patients as they go to different organisations for their care.
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April Csabai is one of the new Macmillan nurses. She said: “I am so humbled to be able to care and support people and their relatives throughout their journey but one of the best parts of my job is when we visit people for the first time. I can see the relief in their eyes because they know they are not alone.
“Being able to support and care for people in their own home and them allowing us into their lives at their most vulnerable time is an honour and I feel very passionate about getting it right for them and their families.”
Cancer charity Macmillan Cancer Support worked with MKUH to develop the new roles and has injected £220,000 of charity cash to fund the posts for the first two years.
Shelley Orton, Macmillan’s partnership manager in Milton Keynes, said: “Cancer patient experience surveys have shown us that people with cancer want their care to be more consistent.
“When you’re having treatment for a life-limiting illness, the last thing you want to do is to have to explain things to your nurses a number of times. These two new roles will make what is a very difficult thing to deal with – a life-limiting illness – a bit easier for people in Milton Keynes.”
