Living with and beyond cancer
Healthwatch Lincolnshire has completed a countywide project to gather the views of 243 cancer patients , family members and carers in support of the Living with and Beyond Cancer Strategy. The Living With and Beyond Cancer programme will look at cancer support and how it is accessed across the county, and is being spearheaded by the four Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Groups and Macmillan Cancer Support.
Healthwatch Lincolnshire had identified:
- Poor numbers of Holistic Needs Assessments undertaken, which would identify any individual needs and concerns about managing their care from diagnosis.
- A need for more Information and support from the point of diagnosis.
- The psychological and emotional impact of cancer is not well recognised and more commissioned support is needed during and beyond diagnosis and treatment.
- The communication between professionals and patients needs to be clearer and organisations do not communicate well together.
- Better follow up support and after care needs to be easily accessible.
- A persons cancer returning was the biggest concern to patients. This along with not getting support or information and the side effects of treatment was not only a concern, but prevented many from getting the most out of life since a cancer diagnosis.
Cancer survival is at its highest ever. People are now twice as likely to survive at least 10 years after being diagnosed compared to the start of the 1970s.
We know people who are offered good support before, during and after a cancer diagnosis and treatment often have better outcomes than people who don’t.
In Lincolnshire, the support that people can get is patchy and services are sometimes dis-jointed. We aim to change this.
