Cancer Care Reviews
Research has shown that the period after cancer treatment has finished can be a difficult time; there are a number of options available to help with this. One of these is a ‘Cancer Care Review’, in which patients have the opportunity to consider how best to cope in the future with the experiences they have had and the consequences of their treatment.
CCR provide support for patients towards self-management following cancer diagnosis and treatment by providing the person living with and beyond cancer an opportunity to discuss how they can personalise their care and, together with their healthcare professional (eg General Practitioner or General Practice Nurse), agree a care plan on how to best meet their needs. In addition, a CCR can provide secondary prevention support through advice about healthy lifestyle and physical activity.
Quality CCR should promote wellbeing, recovery and empowerment to support the patient to have an active role in their care (The NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England 2019).
The East of England Cancer Alliance commissioned Quality CCR pilots from October 2019 until March 2020, these are detailed below. The Anglia Ruskin University evaluation is also available here.
“The primary purpose of a Cancer Care Review is to support patients towards self-management by covering their psycho-social and physical needs and incorporating the needs of their carers. Ideally CCRs should bridge primary and secondary care interface so that the patient has a seamless supported service that is clear and documented.”
In order to provide a consistent service to cancer patients within primary care the East of England Cancer Alliance Working Group for Cancer as a Long-Term Condition formed in September 2018 to look at how high quality Cancer Care Reviews (CCRs) can be delivered across the region.
More generally the aim is for cancer to be integrated within a long-term conditions management approach at a GP practice or Sustainability Transformation Partnership (STP) / Integrated Care Systems (ICS) level.
CST Holistic 4 Point Model for Cancer Care Reviews
The aims of the pilots are to improve the current variation of the quality of CCR across the east of England and inform Primary Care Health Professionals (PCHPs) about how to target areas for improvement to ensure there is equity of access to CCR for all patients living with and beyond cancer.
The request for accessing Transformation Funding (2019/20) for the CCR pilots across the region was endorsed by the East of England Cancer Alliance Primary Care Group in February 2019 with agreement for the pilots to ‘go live’ from 1st October 2019 – 31st March 2020. The Anglia Ruskin University evaluated the pilots and the report is available here.
