chemo@home, Silver Chain form joint venture

WA-based chemo@home and aged care services provider Silver Chain are creating a new joint venture to ensure more patients can access chemotherapy treatments at home.

chemo@home company director Lorna Cook told Business News the two parties were signing off on contracts and were planning to start delivering services in the next three to six months.

Ms Cook said with Silver Chain’s experience in logistics, and chemo@home’s unique business, the new venture would be able to offer expanded care to public patients.

“It means we will be able to have a new company that will meet the needs of the public space,” Ms Cook said.

“That’s a huge undertaking and we are seven years old, but we are still essentially a startup that’s in rapid growth but with their logistics and their power and our niche, we will be able to take this and offer it to public patients.”

chemo@home is only available to clients with eligible private health cover, which Ms Cook wants to change.

“There is a real need for public hospitals to get on board here given the current health circumstances,” she said.

“This is about empowering patients to demand this service; it should be patient choice rather than doctor recommendation.”

Silver Chain chief executive Dale Fisher said the recent pandemic response had opened many opportunities in both the virtual and at home space.

“I believe that as we move towards expanding the range of services available outside the hospital walls, infusion services, including chemotherapy, will and should become more frequently delivered at home,” Ms Fisher said.

The announcement comes after chemo@home experienced increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When the pandemic hit, many people no longer wanted to go to hospital to be treated with chemotherapy or immune therapy because they, and their family were scared, which was delaying cancer patients’ treatment,” Ms Cook said.

“As a result, treatment numbers more than doubled, and we are now providing more than 1,200 treatments a month Australia-wide.”