A two-year project aimed at providing extra training for health care professionals who support cancer patients across Lancashire and South Cumbria is being made permanent thanks to funding from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust.
The Cancer and End of Life Education Hub, which was first funded by the Rosemere Cancer Foundation, delivers free education and training on the prevention of cancer, early detection, treatment and more. This training is available to the entire cancer workforce in the region, from doctors and nurses in hospitals and general practice to allied health professionals.
Since the Hub launched in 2018 with a £180,000 grant from the Rosemere Cancer Foundation, it has held study days, masterclasses and earlier this year hosted the first Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Conference, which was attended by more than 100 delegates.
The Hub is based at Royal Preston Hospital which is the Cancer Centre for Lancashire and South Cumbria.
Karen Partington, Chief Executive at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“We were delighted to confirm the new permanent status of the Hub, which provides such a vital service to ensure patients with cancer in our community and their loved ones receive the best care possible. As the Cancer Centre for the region, it has been our pleasure to see the incredible work carried out through education and training to equip our medical community with everything they need, and I look forward to seeing the service expand and progress in the future.”
Dr Debbie Williamson, Clinical Education Lead for the Hub, said:
“We are so grateful both to the Trust for the permanent funding and to Rosemere Cancer Foundation for enabling us to start the service in the first place. We are now able to continue to with our mission to ensure those affected by cancer have better outcomes, patient experience and quality of life as our focus is to equip our healthcare professional community with the knowledge and skills to deliver the best care to our patients.”
Anne Tomlinson, Macmillan Lead Cancer Nurse and End of Life Lead at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“The hub will be essential in providing advanced communication training to all our staff, which is so important for patient care. We have also developed through the Education hub an online e-learning package for staff to train them to be able them to carry out holistic needs assessments of patients to help to support all aspects of their care, not just the physical elements of cancer and to ensure we deliver personalised care. Well-trained staff equals better patient care.”
Lyndsay Ashton, Cancer Education Manager at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“We are so proud to be pioneering such an important project in the form of the hub, as we are now delivering first class training to the cancer workforce across the region, including the Cancer Alliance, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals FT, East Lancashire NHS Trust and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay FT. There are new developments happening all the time in the treatment of cancer, which is why it is important to have continuing education in place through our study days and masterclass series, which are also great networking events that bring the entire cancer workforce together to ensure best practice across our whole region.”
Dan Hill, Chief Officer at the Rosemere Cancer Foundation, said:
“We realised the Hub’s potential from the beginning, which is why we supported the project in its launch. It has since gone on to prove itself invaluable. The team has done an outstanding job in terms of the wide breadth of learning and training it has been able to deliver, and long may it continue to ensure that the diagnosis and treatment of cancer throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria continues to improve in line with our ever greater understanding of the disease.”
To stay up to date on upcoming education events, visit the Cancer and End of Life Education Hub website here: https://healthacademy.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/courses/cancer-education-hub/
