New project will transform services for cancer patients in Lincolnshire

The Living With and Beyond Cancer programme is designed to change services available to cancer patients and their families for the better.

It will look to improve support and information services in hospitals, ensure the services anyone diagnosed with cancer might need are available in the community and making sure patients and their families have reliable sources of information at a variety of locations including hospitals, workplaces and GP surgeries.

The project is being led by NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group and Macmillan Cancer Support has funded the programme development manager’s post for three years.

Kathie Longbone, who is leading the programme, said they have identified three main projects to take them forward over the next two years, including one in Gainsborough, which aims to find out what people need within the community to live with and beyond cancer and to ensure they can be referred to existing services or services that are being developed by other organisations or volunteers.

Kathie said: “Living With and Beyond Cancer is a countywide project and in the future we will be rolling it out to all areas of Lincolnshire.

“This will start off in Gainsborough to join up with other work going on there around primary care

“At this stage, we need to find the best way of making it work and we have identified Gainsborough because of the innovative work going on around Neighbourhood Teams and Integrated Working.”

Ms Longbone said that while it is widely known there are brilliant staff and support services already out there for cancer patients, they face the same problems that the whole NHS is facing such as stretched resources.