Are you or a family member / friend living with cancer?
Healthwatch Dorset are working with Macmillan Cancer Support and the Wessex Cancer Alliance to find out more about people’s experience of cancer support care in West Dorset.
One in two people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, analysis suggests.
Louise Bate, Healthwatch Dorset Manager said,
“It is so important to hear about people’s current experiences of support around cancer so services can be improved to meet the needs of the community. We are asking people in Dorset to complete our online survey or get in touch with us to share their experiences of cancer care and tell us about the care they wish they had received. With the number of people living with cancer in the UK set to grow to around four million by 2030, there’s an urgent need to help people face the complex physical, financial and emotional impacts of the disease.”
Wessex Voices, an innovative partnership between NHS England and five local
Healthwatch in the Wessex area, carried out a literature review in preparation for this project, available on their website: www.wessexvoices.org.
One respondent said: “The team at the hospice helped us a lot and were wonderful (but at first we didn’t know we could use them). What I believe would have made the whole process better, would have been to have one person appointed to oversee all her care and treatment.”
The research also found that people want to be given more support options from diagnosis. Sometimes information was provided too late or not given at all and patients found out about other treatment and support options by chance.
Chris Scally, Strategic Partnership Manager at Macmillan Cancer Support explains: “When you are going through a diagnosis / treatment for cancer it’s so important to have the right support. Your comments will be used to inform and support the evaluation of our pilot projects in West Dorset & Southampton, which aim to provide people with support in the community earlier in their cancer journey.”
Please take part in the short online survey at this link https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/cancersupport/, it only takes 10-15 minutes and Healthwatch Dorset want to encourage as many people as possible to have their say and help improve local cancer support services. The survey is open until 23rd February.
Visit www.healthwatchdorset.co.uk for more information and please contact us 0300 111 0102 if you’d like to take part in a face to face interview.