Coventry & Warwickshire COVID-19 Portal

This newsletter will keep you informed about the latest news, developments and future to help primary care in the delivery of excellence in cancer care across Coventry and Warwickshire.

COVID-19 UPDATE

‘Help Us, Help You’ Campaign

You will probably be aware of the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign. This is a major national public information campaign that was recently launched, encouraging people to contact their GP if they are experiencing worrying symptoms or signs that may lead to cancer. Locally, we have developed a ‘Help Us, Help You’ communication strategy that seeks to remind people living in Coventry and Warwickshire that NHS services remain open to the public and that it is vitally important for people who have serious conditions or concerns that they continue to seek help.

You can access materials here from the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign that can be used on websites and social media pages to help get the message out that NHS services are still open.

Update to the Cervical screening Service

With effect from Thursday 28th May 2020, Royal Wolverhampton Trust laboratory has partially resumed its service and will collect samples from GP practices across the West Midlands. Initially there will be two collections per week; Tuesdays and Thursdays however this will return to 5 daily collections each week, once the service has fully resumed. Click here to read a copy of the latest correspondence.

Support for patients living with Cancer during COVID-19

A full list of cancer charities providing support for patients and their families is available, click here.

NHS Volunteer Responder Referrals

NHS healthcare professionals and social care staff can now refer people for help from NHS Volunteer Responders through an easy-to-use weblink: goodsamapp.org/NHSreferral. The service is for patients who need to self-isolate due to health reasons and need support to do so via collecting shopping/medication, transport home from hospital and to medical appointments, and ‘check-in and chat’ phone calls to prevent loneliness. Further details are available here: https://bit.ly/3e5vOPj.

NON-COVID UPDATE

Early Diagnosis for Cancer QOF QI 2020/21

There is enough for us all to be contending with now. Please don’t worry about the QOF QI for early diagnosis. We are producing a resource pack for Practices in Coventry and Warwickshire for this and this will be sent out to practices soon.

Metastatic Spinal Cord Compression (MSCC)

For patients with a cancer diagnosis and especially those with known bone metastases there is a risk of presentation of MSCC. The most common cancers where this occurs is breast, prostate, lung, lymphoma and myeloma. The importance of early recognition and treatment of MSCC is crucial in order to preserve function. Not only is preservation of mobility important, but preservation of continence makes a huge difference in maintaining dignity at the end of life. What do you do when you suspect a patient has MSCC? Click here to refer to the Coventry and Warwickshire pathway.

Death certificates for patients dying within 30 days of receiving chemotherapy A reminder that you must inform the coroner of all cancer patients who die within 30 days of receiving chemotherapy or immunotherapy regardless of the presumed cause of death. This includes unexpected deaths, deaths from a known medical problem or progressive disease. Holistic Cancer Care Local Enhanced Service Update Please be advised that the scheme is suspended until Autumn 2020, with the ability to bring forward earlier should it be safe to do so.

Smoking in Pregnancy Survey Update

Click here to read the findings of the Smoking in Pregnancy Staff Survey that some of you may have participated in. An education session based on the findings shall be developed in due course and will be led by Public Health colleagues. The Role of Tumour Markers in Cancer Diagnosis Please find further details here.

Cancer of Unknown Primary Services (CUP) Please find further details on CUP services in Coventry and Warwickshire, click here. Opportunities for Education around Cancer later in the year We are looking to pilot a virtual ‘speed dating’ approach to education over the coming months, so please keep an eye out for further information on this. We also continue to work with external providers and GP education leads to develop plans for online and face to face education, which is likely to commence towards the end of the year/early 2021.

Health and Care Partnership (H&CP) website and social media

We are pleased to say that we have been working on developing a Cancer page for the H&CP website which is now live. The page provides an overview of the system-wide Cancer programme that we have worked on so far and the future projects that we have planned.

We continue to work on the page and welcome any thoughts that you might have. The H&CP has also revamped its social media pages, so please feel free to follow us and stay up to date with the latest news and updates. You find us at:

Facebook: @healthyhappycw

Twitter: @healthyhappycw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healthyhappycw/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthyhappycw

Welcome and contact us

Finally, we would like to extend a welcome to the newest members of the Health and Care Partnership, Fatima Faysal, NHS Graduate Management Trainee who will be supporting the Cancer programme, Vimbayi Muzonde, Project Manager for Cancer and Diagnostics workstreams and Lucy Barratt, the H&CP’s new Social Media Content Executive.

If you have any suggestions regarding what we could include in future editions please contact us:

Hazel Blanchard Macmillan GP Facilitator for South Warwickshire: hazelblanchard@nhs.net

Kate Day Macmillan GP Facilitator for Coventry and Rugby: kate.day@nhs.net

Emma Marks Macmillan GP Facilitator for Warwickshire North: emma.marks@nhs.net

Jim McMorran NHS West Midlands/CRUK Primary Care Cancer Lead: jim@gpnotebook.co.uk

Lisa Hall Macmillan Primary Care Nurse Facilitator: lisa.hall23@nhs.net

Michelle Park System Lead Cancer: michelle.park@cwstp.uk

Suman Ghaiwal Communications Manager: suman.ghaiwal@coventryrugbyccg.nhs.uk

Alison Flynn Commissioning Support Officer: alison.flynn@coventryrugbyccg.nhs.uk Fatima Faysal (Assistant Project Manager for Cancer): FatimaFaysal@cwstp.uk