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Wirral University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Cancer - Health and Wellbeing

The health and wellbeing of patients is crucial to the future survivorship and improved outcomes for cancer patients. The ‘Achieving World Class Outcomes – A strategy for England 2015- 2020’  looks at how the NHS can deliver care for people affected by cancer by a radical change in focus with an emphasis on early diagnosis and addressing the needs of those ‘living with and Beyond cancer’.

The strategy sets out a vision for what cancer patients should expect from the health service and how health economies can meet the demands of the expected increased numbers of new cancers and the necessity to improve survival rates. One of the Key recommendations was implementation of the recovery package which emphasises the health and wellbeing agenda.

Events

Events

Health and Wellbeing Events

Our regular Cancer Health and Wellbeing events provide anyone affected by cancer with all the information they need to enable them to rehabilitate and manage their condition.

They include opportunities to access advice about work or finance, physical activity and the wide range of local services that offer help and support for people living with a long term condition.

They also feature short talks from health care professionals on topics such as coping with the emotional effects of cancer, consequences of treatment, physical activity and nutrition. 

Recovery Package

The recovery package has been developed and tested by the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative (NCSI) (NHS Improvement 2012) to assist people living with a diagnosis of cancer to prepare for the future, identify their individual needs and support rehabilitation to enable people to return to work and or a near normal lifestyle.

The recovery package has been designed to complement the risk stratification which enables individualised follow-up care as a supported self management programme, shared care or complex care.

What is the recovery package?

Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA)

HNA is carried out at diagnosis, end of treatment and any other significant point. The assessment identifies the individual needs of the person affected by cancer and contributes to a consultation. The consultation can then be focused on the needs identified, a care plan can be developed and an appropriate referral can be made to services that support patients, such as lymphoedema, psychological and services dealing with the consequences of treatment.

This ensures that care is proactive and support services are planned and accessed appropriately. The assessment can be used to inform the treatment summary. The patient receives a copy of the care plan to enable self management and a copy is sent to the GP.

Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA)

Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA) is carried out at diagnosis, end of treatment and any other significant point. The assessment identifies the individual needs of the person affected by cancer and contributes to a consultation. The consultation can then be focused on the needs identified, a care plan can be developed and an appropriate referral can be made to services that support patients, such as lymphoedema, psychological and services dealing with the consequences of treatment. This ensures that care is proactive and support services are planned and accessed appropriately.

The assessment can be used to inform the treatment summary. The patient receives a copy of the care plan to enable self management and a copy is sent to the GP.

End of Treatment

EOT summary is developed by the multidisciplinary team to inform the patient and the GP of the care and treatment received. The summary includes possible treatment toxicities and / or late effects, alert symptoms that require referral back to a specialist team, an ongoing management plan, and a summary of information given to the patient about their cancer and future progress and any required GP actions to support the patient.

Cancer Care Review

A Cancer Care Review is carried out by the GP three to six months following a diagnosis of cancer and covers post-treatment support, financial impact of cancer, patient awareness of prescription exemptions, possible late effects of cancer and cancer treatment and the information needs to enable self management.