Providing more care outside hospital for people with cancer is one of the core ambitions in the new National Cancer Plan for England. It’s something we are deeply committed to here at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, which is why we’re helping people with cancer to avoid A&E, where possible, when they feel unwell.
We’re working with primary and community care, 111 and other hospitals to make it much easier for people with cancer to get specialist support when they need urgent or emergency care. It’s part of the urgent cancer care programme led by Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance.
Patricia Curtis, from Wirral, benefited from the new services after using our 24/7 Hotline for people on anti-cancer treatment or who recently completed it. The Hotline team of specialist cancer clinicians were able to assess Patricia’s condition and refer her to urgent care services instead of A&E.
Patricia said:
I can’t fault the support I have had when I needed urgent care for my cancer. When you have something like a cough or cold, you know what to do but when you have cancer it’s something you just don’t know about. It’s great to have a service like the Hotline that you can call for advice if you aren’t sure what to do.
Last December, I started feeling really unwell and wasn’t sure if it was just side effects from my chemotherapy or something more serious. I called the Hotline at Clatterbridge and they were able to refer me to same day emergency care. I was seen and had all my tests in the Urgent Medical Assessment Unit at Arrowe Park instead of having to go to A&E, which was fantastic. It turned out I had a type of sepsis that people can get when they are on cancer treatment so I was admitted to hospital. I thought it was brilliant to be seen, have my tests and be admitted to hospital without going to A&E.
Family member Rosie Davies has also called the Hotline when Patricia has been unwell and needed urgent advice. She said:
Having a service like the Hotline where you can speak to someone knowledgeable who can triage calls and make sure you get the help you need is just wonderful. I have rung through on two separate occasions and the doctor on the Hotline was fantastic. She asked relevant questions to find out more and arranged, in the first situation an admission to the Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU) where prompt emergency care was administered. If the Hotline service had not been available, our only option would have been to self-present to A&E at our local hospital.
The second time we called, the doctor was able to refer and link us in with community care, arranging for someone from the community team to come to Pat’s home to do blood tests. It showed she had an infection, so the Hotline doctor arranged for Pat to go to the Urgent Medical Assessment Centre at Arrowe Park for further tests and antibiotics. It meant she didn’t have to go to A&E to get diagnosed and the care she needs.
I cannot express how beneficial it is to be able to link in with a team who is not only knowledgeable and professional but also able to provide advice and a plan of care. Navigating health services can be so difficult, even when you work in healthcare. Everything can feel very overwhelming and scary. The Hotline emergency triage service is an essential part of cancer care and as a family we feel very grateful to the whole team.
Thank you so much, Patricia and Rosie, for sharing your story. The NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside is determined to keep improving access to specialist urgent and emergency cancer care.
Read more about how we're improving urgent and emergency cancer care
Read more about the National Cancer Plan for England (Gov.uk)
