Wes Streeting’s cancer plan is at risk if the NHS doesn’t do 1 simple | UK | News

A battle is on to ensure cancer patients get the support they need to deal with the “bomb” that has gone off in their lives, according to a leading charity. Following a lengthy campaign by the Daily Express, Wes Streeting recently pledged that everyone diagnosed with cancer will have a personal cancer plan. This will help them deal with all aspects of their lives while battling the disease, and afterwards.

The Health Secretary said it would be brought in this year, but the charity Macmillan Cancer Support says it is more likely to be in 2027 as there is work that needs to be done behind the scenes to put it in place. Macmillan’s chief executive Gemma Peters said: “Before this plan is out, there’ll be four million people in the UK with cancer. It’s a huge number of people, all of whom should have a care plan to support them as they navigate their life with or beyond cancer. »

Ms Peters said: “I’ve heard people describe diagnosis as a bit like a kind of bomb going off in your life and it affects all different aspects of your life.

“You need someone at your side and to feel that there’s someone at your side who will help you navigate all the different elements of your life which are affected. That really is at the heart of a care plan and just it’s someone to ask you the right questions, to help you think through, who knows, who’s experienced and expert enough to know where to navigate to get support.”

The charity developed a holistic needs assessment, which is made up of 42 questions about all aspects of life from a person’s sex-life to employment. It is intended to indicate what support a cancer patient needs to navigate their life both while battling the disease and afterwards, and is considered the forerunner to the personal cancer plan.

But many hospitals do not carry out the assessments so there are concerns about whether they will ensure their patients have a personal cancer plan.

Ms Peters said: “It’s really important that through the plan there is this balance of not just survival, but experience of people with cancer, those things that are valued equally, because a key part of how we improve people’s experience and improve the care that people get is through understanding what people’s experience is.

“At the moment it’s hugely variable whether or not you have those conversations and it massively depends on the area that you live, who you are, what, how valued they are by the hospital leadership.

“We know how important this is. The health system actually knows how important this is. And yet it’s been failed, it’s failed to be adopted across the country. »

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Ms Peters said: “The commitment in the plan is that everybody will have one of these and that we’ll start implementing that next year. I think the barriers definitely are staff training and leadership commitment. Are they really holding it as important in terms of how they’re assessing performance?

“But also just in general, the NHS is not amazing at collaboration with others, which is what it takes to deliver the care plan.

“The NHS needs to work with organisations like Macmillan, community organisations, local government, other bits of the jigsaw, because people’s needs, not all of the needs that people present with are things that someone who sits in a hospital can solve.

“Sometimes it’s needs like childcare or how do you get your blue badge or any number of things where what you need to be able to do is understand what the problem is but also navigate to the support that’s available.”