Our Cancer workstream is aimed at ensuring the delivery of high quality care and improving outcomes to our west Suffolk community.
Cancer is a disease with an acute phase, but it can evolve to become a long-term condition. Appropriate management therefore is essential in order to help patients through all stages of their treatment pathway and help them to live with and beyond their disease. Our focus is on streamlining the pathway by identifying and agreeing how a patient should be followed up in the acute hospital setting.
The CCG also raises awareness of the Acute Oncology Service available at the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This 24/7 service treats individuals with emergency conditions any time of the day or night, ensuring that they receive timely appropriate care and management. It is hoped that by introducing the Acute Oncology Service there will be a reduction in hospital admissions and length of stay for patients will be reduced.
The main Cancer projects we are focusing on are set out below:
Acute Oncology Service Implementation: aimed at reducing hospital admissions by providing a telephone support and triage service to cancer patients presenting with an oncological emergency. Use of the service and the outcome of calls need careful monitoring and management. A poster has been developed and is in place within the acute Trust setting, and will be rolled out within General Practice.
Reducing Cancer Follow Up appointments: the aim is to provide a telephone follow-up service for an agreed group of patients as appropriate, therefore reducing hospital follow-up attendances.
Cancer Information Prescriptions / End of Treatment Summaries / Primary Care Education: we aim to ensure that every cancer patient is offered an information prescription. This is information tailored to individual need and provided at key stages of the cancer journey, and can be provided electronically or in hard copy format. We will also work to improve the early diagnosis profile by way of ongoing promotion of cancer priorities and initiatives via regular practice visits and annual education days.
Community Cancer Care Nurse Pilot: we will work with the Transforming Community Care Group to implement and evaluate the pilot of the Community Cancer Nurse (CCN) role.
HOPE (Help Overcome Problems Effectively): Get support and share experiences at these FREE, six week courses for all age groups living with & beyond cancer in west Suffolk. Find new ways to regain your confidence, manage stress and emotional difficulties. Meet, share, learn and get much more out of life with the HOPE course.
For more information contact Nicky McKee on 01284 713023 or email: nicky.mckee@wsh.nhs.uk
What We Did When Mummy Got Cancer – is a book written by a Suffolk mum who is in remission from breast cancer, so other mums with the illness can explain the disease to their children.
For all the Support Groups around west Suffolk please click here.
