CancerCare Hub Working Well In Steinbach

The CancerCare Hub is located within Bethesda Hospital's CancerCare unit.

Since opening six weeks ago, the CancerCare Hub based out of Bethesda Hospital in Steinbach has been working very well.

The Hub adds enhanced services to Bethesda's CancerCare unit, and Medical Lead for the Hub Dr Curtis Krahn explains what it does.

"This is really the lead up before you're actually diagnosed with cancer," Krahn says. "This is going from first suspicion to when you get first treatment, that's the piece we've added in. Basically cancer navigation is the additional part to the cancer hub."

While the Bethesda CancerCare unit has been great with helping those diagnosed with cancer, Krahn says they weren't always great at getting people into the system. Now, that has changed.

"I've seen a lot of benefits already," he notes. "What we've seen so far is that first of all we've had a connection with people we previously would have only nebulously known were in the system and coming down the pipes. Now we have access to them right from the get-go, right from first suspicion. Now we're getting to work with them earlier."

The hub brings two new staff members into the CancerCare equation, one who helps patients dealing with the stress and anxiety of the situation, and the other who will help guide patients along and improve timelines.

"Patients very often are not sure what happens next, what their role is, and if they should be doing something," Krahn describes. "So what the cancer navigation team is going to do is literally that, they are going to help navigate people. It's sort of the equivalent of having someone with a GPS and a map in front of them showing them where to go when they aren't quite sure where they need to go. Those people are additional to what we've had in CancerCare in the past."

The Steinbach CancerCare Hub was the last of 13 to open in rural Manitoba. It was part of a provincial initiative, and was in development for over one year before it was opened.