Improving cancer care

Funding for projects to benefit patients and clinical staff

A total of £1.5 million funding in 2024-25 is supporting 12 projects to continue providing direct and personalised support to patients with cancer.

The Single Point of Contact (SPoC) pilots provide patients with ongoing contact to support them, putting them at the heart of all decisions and actions involving them throughout their care journey.

The NHS Lothian SPoC uses a centralised digital hub delivering telephone communication and support to patients with a range of cancer types.

Around 40% of calls are diverted away from Clinical Nurse Specialist workload, which has led to improvements in the quality of their telephone contacts. Patient engagement work carried out by NHS Lothian and Healthcare Improvement Scotland has indicated high satisfaction with the service.

Confirming the funding, which is included in the 2024-25 Budget, as he met nurses at Edinburgh Cancer Centre with experience of the service, First Minister John Swinney said: “We are fully focused on improving cancer survival, and delivering excellent and accessible care is at the core of how we do that.

“The Single Point of Contact Service meets requirements identified by Boards to deliver improvements in communication and support for patients with navigating cancer care.

“By taking in the region of 2,000 calls per month and providing person-centred support to those patients throughout their care journey, the Edinburgh Single Point of Contact project provides consistent access for patients to have conversations about their care, freeing up capacity for specialist staff to focus on the most complex cases.”

Katie Gibson, Neuroendocrine Tumour Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, said: “I’ve seen first-hand how the SPoC service has transformed our ability to care for cancer patients.

“The centralised system streamlines communication and allows us to spend more quality time with those who need it most.

“As a result, patients are aware of who to contact for the support and advice they require from diagnosis , treatment and beyond.”

Over £1.5 million will support 12 pilot projects across Scotland to deliver a single point of contact to people diagnosed with cancer.

Funding has been delivered in response to needs identified by individual Boards and proposals submitted by them, pilots vary by cancer type and location:

• NHS Lothian has received £ 343,740 to support the telephone-based SPoC service at Edinburgh Western General, serving boards within the South East Scotland Cancer Network
• NHS Borders has received £82,000 for 3 cancer care co-ordinators, providing support across a variety of cancer sites
• NHS Dumfries and Galloway has received £71,000 for 2 cancer co-ordinator posts, providing a telephone-based support service across a range of tumour sites  
• NHS Fife has received £107,354 to staff a Single Point of Contact Hub, dealing with all urgent suspected cancer referrals.  
• NHS Forth Valley has received £67,556 for 2 healthcare support workers (HCSW) providing a single point of contact for 7 tumour groups
• NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and NHS Lanarkshire have received total funding of £202,668to develop a regional approach to digital remote follow up of prostate cancer patients in the West of Scotland
• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has received £67,566 for 2 support workers to augment specialist gynaecological nursing support  and £141,324 for 4 SPoC roles across GGC sites to smooth and facilitate the patient journey, for people diagnosed with lung cancer
• NHS Grampian has received £84,500 for 3 posts to provide a joint service with Macmillan Navigators, providing support following an Urgent Suspicion of Cancer (USC) referral
• NHS Highland has received £270,680 for 7 Cancer Support Workers providing tailored support throughout diagnostic pathway and onto treatment
• NHS Tayside has received £33,288 to provide support for people diagnosed with advanced Upper Gastrointestinal or Hepatopancreatobiliary tumours and lung, renal and prostate cancers
• NHS Western Isles has received £68,000 for 2 HCSWs, as part of the Macmillan Team, to support people with all types of cancer

Health Improvement Scotland is currently carrying out a scalability assessment of all 12 projects in order to identify best practice and how best to scale and expand these pilots.