Information For All Patients

How we provide services and look after you

Many of our patients come from quite far away. Most patients will have other doctors who are also involved in their care as well as doctors at The Christie, for example their GP and local hospital consultant.

We work closely with these medical teams and hospitals. This may mean that your cancer treatment can be given more conveniently for you at your local hospital.

Providing more Christie treatment closer to home

In addition to giving treatment and care at our main site in Withington, we are providing more outpatient treatmetns closer to patients' homes.

Christie doctors are already giving more chemotherapy treatments in local hospitals, and we have two radiotherapy centres in Oldham and Salford. This means that many patients can get cancer treatment much closer to home.

What happens if you become unwell when you are at home

We provide a 24 hour telpehone service for patients who are on certain cancer treatments. This is called The Christie Hotline, which you can call on 0161 446 3658. You will be told how to use the Hotline if you become unwell while you are on chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or if the problem relates directly to cancer.

The Hotline calls are taken by a specialist nurse. They will advise you what yo do next. Sometimes this will be to see your GP or go to your nearest hospital. If the nurse asks you to come to The Christie, we may be able to give advice and enable you to return home without needing to stay.

You can also contact the secretary of your consultant or the nurse specialist who works with the team. Otherwise you should see your GP as normal.

What happens if you become unwell when you are at The Christie as an outpatient

If you are seen in a clinic as an outpatient and are unwell because of your treatment then a decision will be made whether to admit you or whether it would be better to be cared for at home.

However if it was better for you to be seen by a different expert in a different hospital, then we would arrange this. For example, if you were unwell because of a heart problem it would be important to be seen by a crdiologist. Or if you had bone cancer and had fractured your hip you would need an orthopaedic service.