A new service at Bluewater Health is looking to make life easier for patients who need constant injections.
The Sarnia hospital is now providing peripherally inserted central catheter lines (PICC), a service that reduces the number of needle injections for a wide variety of patients.
A PICC is a central venous access line inserted in the arm and used for long-term administration of medications such as chemotherapy.
Chief of staff Dr. Michel Haddad says it will make a patient's experience much more comfortable and convenient.
He says it will be especially beneficial for the hospitals growing cancer clinic that just hired a second oncologist.
"It's widely used in the clinic for chemotherapy patients and for patients who have chronic infections who need multiple antibiotics for many weeks at a time," he says. "The PICC lines can also be used to get blood samples and give medications.
The hospital recently had only limited ability to provide the service so as a result, patients were travelling to London, Windsor and Chatham for care.
Dr. Haddad says the announcement was long overdue.
"What prompted the change was our feeling that we need to improve access for our patients," he says. "I didn't see why our patients in Sarnia-Lambton had to go somewhere else."
A nurse-led outpatient clinic for PICC lines began the week of May 14.
The service will soon be available at Bluewater Health in Petrolia.