Improving cancer services in the community
4.1 People with cancer spend much more of their time living in their own home than in a hospital or hospice.
GPs, district nurses, social services, home nursing services and community specialist palliative care teams provide essential support for patients and their families at different times.
4.2 Health professionals working in primary care advise patients on healthy lifestyles and the benefits of screening, leading to the prevention and early detection of cancer. They assess patients with symptoms which could be due to cancer and decide whether investigation or referral is necessary. They provide continuing professional support for patients and their families during cancer treatment and for patients who are dying and support for carers in bereavement.
4.3 Cancer services in the community are patchy and not as good as they should be. Patients with cancer are not always referred to a hospital as soon as they could be. Primary care teams have been insufficiently involved in shaping cancer services. Support for patients living at home with advanced cancer is sometimes poorly coordinated and services may not be available 24 hours a day. There have been insufficient training opportunities to give primary health care teams the confidence to support patients with advanced cancer.
