Five hospitals across the East of England have set out new commitments to improve breast cancer care after working with patients, their friends and families as part of a national programme.

NHS specialist teams and patients at Luton and Dunstable, Bedford, Ipswich, Colchester and Norfolk and Norwich Hospitals have worked together with leading charity Breast Cancer Now, as part of its Service Pledge Programme.

The programme is dedicated to improving breast cancer services by bringing together patients, healthcare professionals and Cancer Alliances to work in partnership.

More than 600 patients treated for breast cancer at the five hospitals completed detailed surveys about their experience and 30 patients also attended focus groups. More than 100 “carer” surveys were also completed by their friends or family.

A massive 95 per cent of patients who completed the survey said they were treated with dignity and respect by all hospital staff.

Areas for improvement were identified by the survey; these are now being addressed and include: offering more support to patients at the beginning and end of treatment; offering additional information about surgical options and how their physical appearance could be affected by surgery; and offering more ongoing support to secondary breast cancer patients from a breast care nurse.

Improvement plans for each hospital have now been created and will be rolled out over the next 18 months, published at www.breastcancernow.org/ServicePledge. Breast Cancer Now will follow up with each hospital after six, 12 and 18 months to assess their progress and evaluate the long-term impact of improvements made on patients and staff.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: “We’re delighted these five hospitals in the East of England have pledged to achieve the very best standards of care for patients with breast cancer.

“It’s wonderful that our Service Pledge is supporting patients and healthcare professionals to work collaboratively, and to discuss experiences and solutions where improvement is identified as needed.

“I look forward to seeing these improvements made as they’ll make such a positive difference and help to ensure breast cancer patients receive the best standard of care from these hospitals.”

The charity will also work with each hospital and with the East of England Cancer Alliances to promote the work of the Service Pledge and enable best practice to be shared across breast cancer services in the region.

Dr Linda Hunter, Associate Medical Director at Norwich and Norfolk University Hospitals and Clinical Director for the East of England Cancer Alliance (North) said: “Our hospitals have fully embraced the opportunity to work with patients, their families and carers, along with NHS staff, as part of Breast Cancer Now’s Service Pledge Programme.

“This careful and detailed work is extremely valuable as it allows full and frank views of where and how we can improve care for breast cancer patients before, during and after treatment.

“As we review the way services are run following lessons from the pandemic, this serves as a blueprint for improvements in our breast cancer services directly from those who have experienced them.

“I would like to thank Breast Cancer Now and everyone who took part in such detailed engagement in our hospitals. We will use this feedback to support our staff and volunteers and continually drive the important changes needed to ensure consistently high-quality care and support for all breast cancer patients, their families and carers.”

Since the Service Pledge launched in 2003, more than 140 breast services across the UK have worked with patients to develop their local Service Pledge, delivering over 400 improvements for primary and secondary breast cancer patients in the past five years.

Breast Cancer Now’s Service Pledge 2021–2022 has been jointly sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company Limited and Pfizer Limited. Lilly and Pfizer have not had any control or involvement with this programme.