Chemo Lab up and running

THERE was a delay in patients receiving treatment at the National Radiotherapy Centre at the St James Medical Centre after the air conditioning broke down in the mixing room where chemotherapy drugs are mixed. An employee at the centre claimed on Wednesday that patients could not access their chemotherapy treatment.

However, chief executive officer of the North West Regional Health Authority Wendy Ali said this was not the case. “Somebody is clearly exaggerating.

The air conditioning in the mixing room where we mix the chemotherapy drugs went down around 10.20 am.

An announcement was made to patients waiting for chemo and they were told the matter was being rectified.

The matter has since been rectified.

“Clearly there would have been a delay in treatments, but operations have been resumed and nobody has been sent home without treatment. All patients are being treated, it just took a little longer.

If someone was supposed to be seen at 10 am you would find that they were seen at 12 noon because they had to fix the AC and the workers had to go in there to mix the drugs because it is a controlled environment,” Ali said.

She said the workers could not go into the room until the air conditioning was back up.

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"Chemo Lab up and running"

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