Enhanced supportive cancer care

Enhanced supportive cancer care
IN: NHS efficiency map: reshaping cancer care, January 2018

• A description of the models of care developed by The Christie NHS Foundation Trust to transform existing palliative care services into what the trust called enhanced supportive care (ESC). The care includes a multi-disciplinary ESC team which patients could access at any stage of their diagnosis or treatment and extended into multiple stand-alone ambulatory care clinics with rapid access for patients. 
• Over the three-year trial, it was estimated almost 600 admissions were avoided by the ESC team. In the first six months ambulatory care clinics were shown to have avoided 141 patients admissions and 59 were discharged early.

Telehealth Clinic trialled with cancer patients in Merseyside

Telehealth system trialled with cancer patients in Merseyside
Digital Health 5 November 2017

• The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust is piloting a new telehealth system allowing cancer patients to have appointments with nurses from the comfort of their own homes. 
• The Telehealth Clinic allows specialist nurses to carry out basic patient health assessments via video call. Patients can ask the nurse any questions they have and arrange any necessary follow-up appointments without having to attend clinic in person.
• All of the patients currently using the Telehealth Clinic are being treated for ‘stable’ forms of cancer using oral treatments.

Greater Manchester study revolutionising detection of lung cancer

Greater Manchester study revolutionising detection of lung cancer
NIHR 25 September 2017

• A feasibility study which is part of the Manchester Lung Screening Pilot - the UK’s first NHS community-based, CT lung cancer screening service, has demonstrated that the approach helps identify lung cancers at early enough to cure them. People at risk of lung diseases were invited though their GP practice to attend a Lung Health Check at a pop up facility in a supermarket car park. The work was funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and commissioned by Manchester CCGs. 
• See also Manchester City Health and Wellbeing Board paper 1 November 2017, Lung Health Checks in Manchester

Virtual online consultations

Virtual online consultations: advantages and limitations (VOCAL) study. 

BMJ Open 2016;6: e009388. doi:10.1136/ bmjopen-2015-009388 

• Description of a Health Foundation project to explore the advantages and limitations of video consultations over face to face or telephone consultations. The programme aims to create a virtual consultation unit in 2 contrasting clinical settings (diabetes and cancer) within Barts Health and form a national network of sites.