Personalised Care and Support

CNSs are key workers, they treat and manage the health concerns of patients and work to promote health and wellbeing in the patients they care for.

They use their skills and expertise in cancer care to provide physical and emotional support, coordinate care services and to inform and advise patients on clinical as well as practical issues, leading to positive patient outcomes.

Meet some of SWAG's Clinical Nurse Specialists

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Macmillan Support Workers work as part of the cancer care team alongside registered practitioners to improve care for people with cancer.

They work with other professionals and provide support by dealing with non complex tasks to allow registered practitioners to focus their expertise on managing the complex care needs.

They provide coordination of care to people mostly after cancer treatment, who can be enabled to self manage their own care with support, with open access back to the MDT.

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Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are a diverse group of professionals who deliver high-quality care across a wide-range of health and social care pathways and across a variety of different settings, from people’s own homes to hospitals.

They include occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians, speech and language therapists, lymphoedema therapists and radiographers amongst others. They provide personalised advice and support to patients and also act as a vital assessment, coordination and referral point. These services improve patients’ satisfaction and help the NHS save resources.

AHPs have a significant positive impact in areas including quality of life, physical fitness, wellbeing, mental health, fatigue, communication, mobility, function, nutritional status and pain. AHPs provide connections between community, primary care, social care and healthcare services.

Cancer rehabilitation, delivered by AHPs, empowers patients living with and beyond cancer. Rehabilitation aims to maximise patients’ ability to function, to promote their independence and to help them adapt to their condition.

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"by 2021, where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support"  NHS Long Term Plan

Personalised Care and Support Planning

An Holistic Needs Assessment is offered following a cancer diagnosis and provides an opportunity to ensure people’s physical, practical, emotional and social needs are identified and addressed at the earliest opportunity. providing-personalised-care-for-people-living-with-cancer-tcm9-355674 (macmillan.org.uk)

Health and Wellbeing Information and Support

Covering  accessible information about emotional support, coping with side effects, financial advice, getting back to work and making healthy lifestyle choices. This support will be available before, during and after cancer treatment.  This may be via group or one-to-one interventions.

End of Treatment Summaries

Treatment Summary Best Practice Templates
SWAG breast post surgery treatment summary FINAL
SWAG breast post chemo treatment summary FINAL
SWAG breast post radiotherapy treatment summary FINAL
SWAG metastatic breast treatment summary FINAL

A detailed summary provided to both patient and GP explaining treatment completed, potential side effects, signs and symptoms of recurrence, after care plan and contact details of any concerns.

Primary Care Cancer Review

An appointment with the patient and GP about 6 months after diagnosis which provides another opportunity to raise and new on ongoing concerns. if appropriate a person can be referred to services or signposted to information and support available in their community and from charities. Cancer Care Reviews in Primary Care | Macmillan Cancer Support

Deaf Cancer Support

Personalised Stratified Follow Up (PSFU) pathways provide better care and experience for patients. They also reduce the amount of time that professionals spend seeing patients who are doing well after treatment. This allows professionals to spend more time on other parts of the cancer pathway i.e. faster diagnosis and treatment and seeing people with more complex issues.

Having PSFU pathways means that when a person completes their primary treatment, they will be offered:

• information about signs and symptoms to look out for which could suggest their cancer has recurred;
• rapid re-access to their cancer team, including telephone advice and support
• regular surveillance scans or tests (depending on cancer type), with quicker and easier access to results so that any anxiety is kept to a minimum; and
• personalised care and support planning and support for self-management, to help them to improve their health and wellbeing in the long-term.
• For further information click here. 

Remote monitoring (RMS) provides patients with a safe guideline-based service to monitor their cancer without attending the hospital clinics. This reduces inconvenience for patients and travel time and costs. It also helps to increase capacity for clinic appointments which need to be face-to-face.