Living with and Beyond Cancer
Cancer survival is at its highest ever, with significant improvements made over the last 15 years. The number of people living with cancer in the UK has risen by 400,000 in the last five years – taking the total number of people living with cancer in the UK to 2.5 million. More than half of people receiving a cancer diagnosis will now live ten years or more. This progress has been driven by improvements in our knowledge of how to treat and control cancer, combined with the commitment of NHS staff to deliver transformative care. We need to make sure that we don’t just help more people to live following a cancer diagnosis, but to live well.
(NHS England, April 2016)
- Clinical Advisory Group
- Sharing good practice Event, Oct 15
- Allied Health Professionals
- Sharing best Practice in Living with and beyond cancer Event 2017
National Taskforce Recommendations
This guidance is intended to support commissioners and clinical networks to ensure every person affected by cancer will have access to the Recovery Package and stratified follow-up pathways by 2020, as set out in the cancer strategy. It describes the actions you will need to take to deliver this including checklists for developing service specifications, practical examples and templates to use and adapt locally.
Updated Living with and Beyond cancer Audit Reports 2016
Since the initial Audit Reports were written in 2015 there has been a wealth of work done in implementing Recovery Package and Stratified pathways. For the purpose of sharing good practice and to capture this work, the audit has been repeated and reports have been updated for 2016.
Resources
- NHS England Cancer webpage and key documents
- Macmillan research posters
- Nuffield Trust Webpage, Use of health and social care by people with cancer research reports
Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA)
Everyone with cancer should be offered an HNA and care plan. Effective assessment and care planning can lead to early interventions, diagnosis of consequences of treatment, improved communication and better equity of care.
The HNA and care plan ensure that people’s physical, emotional and social needs are met in a timely and appropriate way, and that resources are targeted to those who need them most. It should take place around diagnosis, at end of treatment, whenever the patient’s needs change or at any other time at the patient’s request.
An HNA may require input from a range of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals (e.g. dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists) to improve a person’s management and care. This creates a shared understanding between patient and healthcare professionals about what to expect during recovery, and identifies any needs to be addressed.
(NHS England, April 2016)