Local organisations host ‘You Said, We Did’ cancer event

Health and care organisations welcomed local residents to a follow-up public engagement event on Thursday 7 August in Wellington, Telford, as part of a continued commitment to working with people diagnosed with cancer to improve cancer care across the county. 

Following previous engagement events held in Shrewsbury and Telford, NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, in partnership with local services and organisations, met with people with lived experience to share the findings from those events, update on the action taken and set out the next steps.  

Loraine Mahachi, Quality Lead for Cancer, said: “At our first two events, people were kind enough to share their experiences and views of cancer services.  

“We’ve listened to what they said, identified actions needed and have started to put in place improvements. We know we have a lot more to do, and this event is about building on that work, updating people on our progress and working together to design what else we could and should do differently.” 

A number of actions and developments are already being progressed, these include: 

• General Practice has recently received funding from the West Midlands Cancer Alliance to provide early diagnosis of pancreatic and prostate cancer.   

• Each Primary Care Network, a cluster of several GP practices, now has a dedicated cancer care coordinator to provide advice and support and ensure that cancer care reviews are carried out. 

• A new vague symptom pathway is in place for people who are suspected of cancer where their symptoms do not clearly indicate a specific type.  

• The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust are on track to reduce waiting times for radiology. 

• A Multi-Disciplinary Team, a team including different health and care professionals, has been established to co-produce personalised care with people diagnosed with cancer. 

As a local resident, Vivienne Jones, 56, from Telford, attended the event. She said: “I also attended the first event in Telford in November - I wanted to see if others had the same experiences as me and whether our feedback could make a difference. 

“I’m very conscious that the NHS is under significant pressure and has limited funding so it’s been really good to hear about the various developments they've been able to achieve and their ambition to do more - it’s clear the teams are working hard to make improvements for patients. 

“Many of the developments to date seem to be in non-clinical areas so it would be good to see more focus on the clinical side of things going forward.” 

Naomi Atkin, Chief Executive Officer for Lingen Davies, said: “It’s great to be working in partnership again with NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin to listen to patient voices and continue the process to make improvements for people throughout their cancer journey. 

“During the event, people shared some extremely useful insights, and we will be making good use of these as we plan the next stage of our service development.”