Meet the Teams

There are currently 12 Cancer Specialities at WUTH which are spread between three divisions within the organisation. Each team has a Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and some teams have Cancer Care Co-ordinators (CCC). Although roles vary across the Trust, all teams aim to provide a quality service, supporting cancer patients at diagnosis, throughout their treatment at WUTH and in some instances prior to diagnosis. The teams are committed to the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan which includes supporting improvements in the pathway, aiming for patients to be diagnosed as early as possible.

The CNSs are line managed by the matrons within the divisions and supported by the Lead Cancer Nurse in a professional capacity. The CNSs and CCCs play a key role in the patient journey and patient satisfaction and are central to the implementation of the personalised care agenda.

The CCCs work alongside the CNSs to improve care for patients and deal with non-complex tasks to allow registered practitioners to focus their expertise on managing the complex care needs of the patient. They support improvement in the patient pathway, timely diagnosis, patient experience and personalised care.

The NHS Long Term Plan for Cancer states that “where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support.” Every team is working towards this ambition for personalised care ensuring care is based on ‘what matters’ to patients and relatives and their individual needs’. A holistic needs assessment (HNA) ensures that people’s physical, practical, emotional, spiritual, and social needs are met in a timely and appropriate way, and that resources are targeted to those who need them most. A HNA is a conversation that allows them to highlight the most important issues to them at that time and this informs the development of a person -centred care and support plan. The CNS’s play a key role supporting cancer patients and ensuring every patient is offered a HNA.

All the CNSs are experienced professionals with the knowledge and skills to support the specific cancer groups. They will all attend Advanced Communication Skills Training and a two-day psychological skills training required to undertake HNA’s . In addition, they also have access to clinical supervision from a level three Psychologist.