Get involved in shaping speech and language therapy for people with cancer
Posted 5th October 2023
A specialist speech and language therapy service that has been shortlisted for a major national award is seeking the views of patients, commissioners and healthcare providers on how best to deliver care for people with cancer across Cheshire and Merseyside in future.
The Liverpool Head and Neck Centre Speech and Language Therapy Cancer Team – which combines the talents of staff from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – have already been shortlisted in the NHS England Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) Awards 2023, thanks to the innovative way they have improved care for people whose speech or swallowing has been affected by cancer.
By creating a single specialist cancer speech and language therapy team in Liverpool with staff from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – and involving patients in designing and continuing to improve the new service – they have been able to make sure that people with head and neck cancer are cared for by the right experts at the right time wherever they are being treated.
Their pioneering work has seen them shortlisted in the AHP Innovation and Improvement in Integrated Care Systems category of the NHS England CAHPO Awards 2023 because of the benefits in patient care that have resulted from delivering a joined-up service across different hospitals in the city.
Now the team are working with the NHS Transformation Unit and Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance to look at how specialist services like this could be provided in future in our region. They are running engagement events where patient representatives, health providers and commissioners can share ideas with a view to developing a model for specialist speech and language therapy for people with head and neck cancer across Cheshire and Merseyside, building on the Liverpool model. The aim is to ensure that everyone with head and neck cancer has seamless access to specialist speech and language therapy wherever they live.
If successful, the model could in future be rolled out to other specialist therapy services.
The engagement sessions are on:
- Wednesday 11th October (AM)
- Monday 13th November (PM)
If you would like to be involved in this work, please contact ccf-tr.admin.cmca@nhs.net for details stating that your message is ‘for the attention of Carys Kinsella’.
