Phone service provides extra support for Barnsley cancer patients

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An NHS pilot project is offering Barnsley people who have undergone surgery for colorectal cancer a unique level of support, over the phone.

The pilot project aims to improve an individual’s quality of life as well as providing advice and information.

The pilot, which will run until July 2014, is provided by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s care navigation service – a specialist service for people who have long-term conditions.

The service is working in partnership with Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s colorectal specialist nurses who offer the service to patients as a further way to help manage their condition and promote recovery.

Following surgery, discharged hospital patients who are identified as having a long term condition are being offered a series of telephone consultations. These are undertaken by qualified nurses known as nurse care navigators.

The navigators are trained to work closely with people to help bring about positive health behaviour changes. Following an initial assessment, patients receive telephone support for three to five months.

Paul Hughes, care navigation service lead for South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, explained, “Cancer survivors may suffer from a range of ongoing psychosocial and physical problems including depression and anxiety, lowered self-esteem and body image, fatigue, pain, nausea, reduced cardiovascular and pulmonary function, and muscle weakness. Our care navigation service provides information and advice and focuses on a person’s wellbeing by changing the relationship between patients and care providers. The service empowers patients to maintain and improve their own health rather than focusing on the specific illness.”

It is expected that the pilot project will help cancer patients:

 experience improved quality of life, health and wellbeing and be more independent

 feel supported and empowered to care for themselves

 have active involvement in decisions about their care and support

 have access to high quality health and social care services to support their individual needs

 reduce the need for multiple appointments with health care professionals

Jane Parker, clinical nurse specialist at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said, “The pilot provides the opportunity for clinicians from both acute and community healthcare providers in Barnsley to develop the patient pathway. It has also enabled community based staff to undertake our training on the enhanced recovery programme.”

The Barnsley care navigation service is available to help anyone with a long-term condition or ongoing illness. To access the service, just call freephone 0800 612 1976.

 

Phone service provides extra support for Barnsley cancer patients

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