Philippa Hyman and Liz Price from the Personalised Care team in TCST are working with North Central London and other interested stakeholders to understand the impact of psychological harm caused by waiting for cancer tests and treatment. One key aspect of this project will be to consider how best to assess the potential for psychological harm in order to be able to alert clinicians, provide the appropriate interventions and ultimately aim to prevent psychological harm in the future.

A steering group has been established and the first stage of the project will be to hold a number of focus groups with stakeholders from both North Central London and the rest of London. Over the summer months, we will be holding focus groups with patient partners & carers, cancer nurses, psychologists, primary care clinicians, cancer support workers and cancer doctors.

As a result of the focus groups and a review of relevant literature, we intend to define ‘psychological harm’ and consider the impact it has on patients whilst waiting for their cancer tests and treatment. With this understanding, we hope to:

• develop good practice on assessing psychological harm,
• identify best ways to communicate this between different services supporting the person’s care,
• provide system level intelligence,
• specify key interventions that should take place to best support the person through their diagnostics and treatment pathways.

If you are interested in being part of a focus group, please contact england.tcstlondon@nhs.net

These will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons through late June, July and early September; participants will be invited into specific focus groups based on their profession/role.