A new and renovated chemotherapy day care unit was also opened at the QSCBC in March 2017. The unit offers greater comfort and close nursing supervision for patients receiving chemotherapy. The unit provides a special facility for cooling the scalp to reduce hair loss, which can be very distressing to some patients undergoing chemotherapy. The QSCBC, following a nursing team research trial, redesigned the scalp cooling equipment, to provide an over 70 percent success in hair loss prevention for Asian women, who previously did not respond well to the original equipment design. The research project is ongoing, the medical and nursing team, in conjunction with an engineer from the Thai Royal Airforce are redesigning a new skull cap to suit Asian cranial anatomy, to further improve the reduction of hair loss.
Currently, there are 10 Scalp cooling facilities which can serve 10 patients simultaneously; a group of specialist nurses supervises the patients as they use the scalp cooling equipment. Warm air blankets to make patients feel comfortable, while using the scalp cooling equipment, are also available to patients. Additionally, there are massage chairs to aid comfort and reduce hands and feet numbness following chemotherapy sessions.
The chemotherapy suite serves 15 patients per session. The Surgical Oncology Day Care Unit is on the 8th Floor of the QSCBC, where it treats its own patients from the centre. Additionally, the QSCBC also accepts cancer patients from various departments, including General Surgery, Urology, Gynecology and Radiotherapy.
