Personalised Care and Support

Personalised care and support planning involves a conversation with one of the Cancer Support Team about your health needs or concerns in relation to your cancer. 

From this conversation a plan will be made with you to ensure the support you can access and receive is personalised to you. 

You will be offered to complete a ‘What Matters to Me – My Cancer Personalised Care and Support Plan’ around the time of your diagnosis, during or after treatment, or as you need it.

Your ‘What Matters to Me – My Cancer Personalised Care and Support Plan’ may address things such as:

• Physical concerns like tiredness, appetite changes, moving around. 
• Emotional concerns like worries about the future, feeling a lack of control.
• Practical concerns like sorting out housework and finding out where to get equipment that can help.
• Family or relationships concerns: like partner or children, person who I look after or looks after me.
• Spiritual concerns like how your faith or spirituality may impact your experience.

Your Clinical Nurse Specialist, Cancer Support Worker or the Macmillan Wellbeing Centre at Southmead Hospital can help you to find the information and support that you may need. 

This could include help with:

• Physical wellbeing.
• Emotional and psychological support.
• Coping with side effects.
• Advice about money, welfare, and benefits.
• Getting back to work.
• Making healthy lifestyle choices.

A Cancer Care Review is a discussion between you and your GP or Practice Nurse about your experience with cancer, to find out if there is anything your GP practice can help you with. 

The Cancer Care Review will take place within 3 and 12 months after diagnosis and might involve:

• Talking about your diagnosis, current needs, and any worries that you may have.
• Planning any extra support that you might need.
• Reviewing your medication.
• Giving you access to other services that you may need.

If you have concerns at any time during or after your cancer treatment, your GP or practice nurse can help.

Following treatment, you should be given a Treatment Summary. The Treatment Summary includes information about:

• Your diagnosis.
• The treatment you had.
• Follow-up arrangements.
• Possible long-term effects or complications.
• Signs and symptoms to look out for.
• Who to get in touch with if you need support.

Your GP will also be sent a copy of your Treatment Summary, this will help with your Cancer Care Review.

After your treatment ends, your cancer support team will discuss with you the plan for your follow-up care. They will let you know about any tests or investigations you might need. How often you have these tests will depend on the type of cancer and treatment you have had.

There are different ways of having your follow-up care, such as: 

• Appointments with a consultant or specialist nurse, either face-to-face, by phone or by video consultation.
• Supporting you to self-manage with support from your cancer team, sometimes known as supported self-management. Supported self-management enables you to be more in control of your care, you can always contact your cancer support team for help or to arrange an appointment when you need it. You will be provided with information about symptoms to look out for and ways to keep healthy.

If you have any side effects from your chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy treatment or feel unwell, please call: 

North Bristol NHS Trust:

• Southmead Acute Oncology Service on 07860 783116 Mon - Fri 08:00 - 17:00.  
• Outside of these times, call the Clinical Hub on 0117 414 0700.

United Hospitals Bristol and Weston Foundation Trust

• Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre on 0117 342 2011 available 24 hours a day, every day.
• Outside of Monday to Friday 08.00 - 17:00 calls are directed to the switchboard who will contact the on-call doctor.

If you want to find out more or have not been offered a service described in this information, please talk to your Clinical Nurse Specialist or the staff at the Macmillan Wellbeing Centre. They can help you to get the support that you need.

If you would like to: 

• Send a thank you or offer a compliment, visit How to say thank you and offer a compliment | North Bristol NHS Trust
• Raise a concern or complaint contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) for help.

The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey aims to understand the experiences of cancer care across England. Your views will help to improve the quality of cancer services in the NHS.

This annual survey asks detailed questions about your experiences throughout your cancer treatment. If you receive a survey, please complete it and give honest feedback about your experiences.

Find out more about the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey: Tell us about your experience of cancer care - National Cancer Patient Experience Survey (ncpes.co.uk)

This survey is for people in England who have had a cancer diagnosis. People are invited to complete the survey around 18 months after diagnosis.

The survey aims to find out how the quality of life may have changed for people diagnosed with cancer. We want to see where care is working well or not so well, and if any new services are needed. The survey helps us compare answers of how people who have experienced cancer are feeling about their cancer diagnosis and treatment. This will help us to improve the way we support people to live as long and as well as possible.

A company called Quality Health sends out survey invitations and collects answers to the survey. Find out more about the Cancer Quality of Life Survey: Cancer Quality of Life Survey - About the Survey (england.nhs.uk)