Evidence and practice

Care closer to home: evaluation of a pilot follow-up and rehabilitation service redesign for patients with head and neck cancer

Catherine Neck Clinical services programme lead: cancer/long-term conditions, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, Bristol, England

Liam Williams Director of quality and system performance, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, Bristol, England

Nicole Cheyne Project manager, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, Bristol, England

David Cullum Business intelligence consultant, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, Bristol, England

Monique Audifferen Head of programmes, Thames Valley Cancer Alliance, Oxford, England

Hannah Hollis Quality improvement manager – personalised care, Thames Valley Cancer Alliance, Oxford, England

Angus Waddell Clinical lead for ear, nose and throat and oral surgery, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Swindon, England

Alex Webb Corporate management accountant, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, Bristol, England

Why you should read this article:

• To read about an evaluation of a pilot service redesign that enables patients with head and neck cancer to receive follow up and rehabilitation closer to home
• To enhance your understanding of the elements involved in a comprehensive evaluation of a service redesign
• To recognise the importance of collaboration between all partners involved in a service redesign project

Patients with head and neck cancer may be required to travel significant distances for treatment, follow up and rehabilitation. This article presents findings from an evaluation of a pilot head and neck cancer service redesign in Thames Valley Cancer Alliance to enable patients from Swindon and Wiltshire to receive follow up and rehabilitation closer to home. The evaluation identified a decrease in overall outpatient visit time for these patients, resulting in reduced travel costs and improved quality of life. Other positive findings included improved outpatient clinic attendance and reduced emergency admissions. However, two aims of the service redesign – increased uptake of holistic needs assessments and delivery of patient education – were not achieved. The evaluation provided evidence for moving the pilot service to a recurrently commissioned model.

Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2022.e1826

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@NeckCatherine

Correspondence

catherine.neck@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Neck C, Williams L, Cheyne N et al (2022) Care closer to home: evaluation of a pilot follow-up and rehabilitation service redesign for patients with head and neck cancer. Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2022.e1826

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the pilot team and in particular are grateful for the patient representation and patient input into the evaluation.

Published online: 29 September 2022

Keywords :

cancer - follow up - head and neck cancer - management - patients - professional - reablement - rehabilitation - service development - service evaluation - service redesign

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04 November 2024 / Vol 23 issue 6

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