Cancer rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is a vital component in the care of people living with and beyond cancer and is key to delivering personalised care. Cancer rehabilitation provides a range of benefits for the wider healthcare economy, but more needs to be done to raise the profile and awareness of cancer rehabilitation in London.
Dealing with the impact of treatment
As professionals, we know that cancer impacts on people in many ways including physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially. Luckily, there is lots that can be done to help people cope with the consequences of cancer treatment and improve their quality of life, but we know that people do not always get the care that they need in a timely manner or close to their homes.
Read more: Dealing with the impact of treatment: a spotlight on cancer rehabilitation in London
Guidance for reducing variation and improving outcomes
This guide aims to reduce variation and improve outcomes across London, and ensure that all patients living with and beyond cancer have access to rehabilitation at all stages of the cancer pathway. The guidance includes an overview of cancer rehabilitation services in London and West Essex, service improvement tools outlining what good looks like, and a minimum dataset. A range of recommendations are presented alongside the next steps needed to support implementation.
Full report: Guidance for reducing variation and improving outcomes in cancer rehabilitation
Mapping cancer rehabilitation services
This service mapping report presents findings from a comprehensive mapping of cancer rehabilitation and physical activity services for people living with and beyond cancer in London and West Essex. Interactive maps are included for each STP area, including details on what each service provides and how to access services. There are also recommendations for the ongoing provision and development of services in the London region.
View the map: Mapping of pan London cancer rehabilitation services
Giving cancer rehabilitation the profile it deserves
One of the things we hear most from those we work with is that cancer rehabilitation doesn’t get the attention and the profile it deserves and needs. This is what inspired us to launch our first ever TCST competition for cancer rehabilitation and we were absolutely blown away by the response. The awards recognised the huge impact that cancer rehabilitation services have across patients’ cancer experiences.
Personalised care means not only providing the best treatment possible, but helping people to live the best life they can. That’s exactly what cancer rehabilitation services do.
View the full list of winners: Giving cancer rehabilitation the profile it deserves and needs
New perspectives on patient care
We started discussing how we could measure what a good service looked like and talked about what would make a gold star service. Early on it became obvious that we should be asking cancer patients what they valued and needed from a rehabilitation service.
Some of the feedback we received we expected to hear, but there were some themes that we were surprised by and we wouldn’t have thought to have included without patient input.
Read the blog: New perspectives on patient care
Service improvement tools
Service improvement tools have been designed to help cancer rehabilitation services evaluate the care they provide. They were created through extensive consultation with stakeholders, with service users’ voices at the heart of the work.
To make sure the tool was meaningful, we wanted to make sure the wording and questions addressed questions from the patient perspective. We also developed a short questionnaire for patients to fill out alongside the service improvement tool for staff to complete. Both tools are designed to be used together to provide a full picture, from both a patient and staff perspective.
Download the tools: Cancer rehabilitation pathways service improvement tools
Data recommendation report
This report finds there is no existing database of cancer rehabilitation metrics that can support the needs of commissioners in London and help inform their decision making.Commissioners are having to make decisions without adequate data on what services are available locally, who is using them and how often, what the impact and benefits of those services are, and what services are needed to fulfil unmet needs.
Read the report: Cancer rehabilitation data recommendation report
Scoping report
This report is designed to help shape the commissioning of cancer rehabilitation services in London.
It identifies London’s key challenges to improving cancer rehabilitation services and discusses the impact on patients. It provides recommendations for future commissioning of cancer rehabilitation services.
Read the report: Cancer rehabilitation: A scoping report for London
