This report highlights the need for improvements in integrated care for cancer patients. Five key areas where patients thought improvements could be made to deliver integrated care were: securing quicker referral from GPs to hospitals for testing and diagnosis; ensuring patients find out the results of their tests as quickly as possible; providing patients with access to a named clinical nurse specialist or other ‘key worker’ throughout the care pathway; supporting patients to feel involved in key decisions about their treatment and care; and putting systems in place to make sure records and test results are available to all clinicians and staff involved in patients’ care.
Emergency admissions for patients with cancer remain problematic despite the development of acute oncology.
