Thinking about changes to non-surgical cancer outpatient appointments

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance is looking to hear from patients, carers, local residents and staff in the Chesterfield area to get their views on appointments for non-surgical cancer patients.

1 in 2 people will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. That’s why our specialist cancer doctors, nurses and other clinicians are here for you and the people you love and care for. They are the people who meet with patients to discuss and agree treatment options, to review how treatment is going, and to plan future treatments.

In the past, there were enough of these specialist cancer clinicians in the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw area for them to see patients at five hospitals in the South Yorkshire area.

More recently, the number of these cancer specialists has reduced as the number and range of available treatments has increased. There are no longer enough specialist staff to run outpatient appointments at all five hospitals and efforts to recruit new staff have not been as successful as the alliance would have liked. Too often, patients’ appointments were delayed or cancelled at short notice.

In order to improve this for patients South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance reduced the number of places specialist cancer clinicians see patients with some types of cancer. They did this because reducing the number of locations that the specialist cancer doctors had to travel to meant they had more time to see more patients.

For example, at the moment, when they have a face-to-fact outpatient appointment, patients with lower gastrointestinal cancer are seen at Weston Park Cancer Centre in Sheffield. These changes improved the availability of doctors and reduced the possibility of patient appointments being delayed or cancelled.

These temporary changes have been in place for some time. Now, they are reviewing where appointments for all non-surgical cancer patients are provided. They want to hear from patients, carers, local residents, and staff, so we can be sure they’ve taken their views into account.

What people tell them will help them to decide whether to make these changes permanent and make sure that they provide a model of care that has the needs of patients, carers, staff and the public at its heart

Your view matters

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance want to hear from:

• Cancer patients and their carers in the Chesterfield area so they can understand how changing where cancer patients go for these planning and review appointments with a cancer specialist affects them.
• More local residents to understand what they think is important for patients when they attend these appointments, and what should be taken into account as these challenges are thought about.

Join one of the online discussions to share your experience (see below for details) This will help local doctors, nurses and service managers decide how to deliver these outpatient appointments in the future.

You can also complete our survey at www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SouthYorkshireCancerAlliance

There will be two online discussion sessions where you can share your views and experiences.  The events are on:

Monday 20 March, 6.30pm – 8pm

Friday 24 March, 2.00pm – 3.30pm

Sign up to be part of our online sessions at https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/south-yorkshire-and-bassetlaw-cancer-alliance-1832359.