INFORMATION REQUEST UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

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1 Trust HQ The Elms RAEI Wigan Lane Wigan WN1 2NN Mr Andrew Foster, Chief Executive Ref: FOI2012/1316 Date Received: 19/07/2012 Response Due: 16/08/ th August 2012 Dear, INFORMATION REQUEST UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 We are now pleased to respond to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. 1. Please confirm or deny whether your emergency department has established an acute oncology service. If confirmed please provide details of the acute oncology service provided by your emergency department. Yes. The Trust is in the process of developing this service, there is an acute oncology project nurse in post now setting up this service which will become operational for patients in Sept/Oct of this year. The service will be alerted to oncology patients attending the emergency floor and then they will be assessed and triaged to the patients attending team. 2. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has arrangements in place to ensure staff are appropriately trained to provide chemotherapy services. If confirmed, please provide details of the arrangements in place in your Trust to ensure staff are appropriately trained to provide chemotherapy services. Yes. The Chemotherapy nurses are trained utilising the Christie training programme, they are assessed by the lead chemotherapy nurse and when they are deemed competent they will be signed off. Updates are yearly, and the lead nurse is assessed by the Christie staff.

2 3. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust undertakes a routine audit of emergency admissions for patients with cancer and cancer treatment-related complications. If confirmed, please provide details of the most recent audit of emergency admissions for patients with cancer and cancer treatment-related complications undertaken by your Trust. Yes. The most recent audit was carried out in July of this year, and was a door to needle time (antibiotic) audit this was a retrospective audit, future audits will be prospective. 4. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has taken steps to ensure that patients are fully involved in decisions regarding their chemotherapy care and treatment. If confirmed, please provide details of the steps taken to ensure that patients should be fully involved in decisions regarding their chemotherapy care and treatment. Yes. Patients are spoken to in clinic by the oncologist regarding the plan of care for their treatment; they are then given information to take away, to give them time to make an informed decision. The patient then has an appointment for a pre- chemotherapy visit where the treatment and side effects are explained again, they also have the opportunity to discuss any other issues at this time. 5. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has local guidelines in place for the prescribing, prescription verification and dispensing of chemotherapy by appropriately trained staff. If confirmed, please supply details of the local guidelines. Prescription verification, dispensing and checking are all covered by aseptic unit Standard Operating Procedures. There are over 80 Standard Operating Procedures please can you be mores specific in what you are looking for. 6. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust maintains up-to-date lists of staff that are designated to prescribe (either first or subsequent cycles), check prescriptions and dispense chemotherapy. If confirmed, please specify the last date that these lists were updated. There is no up to date list as such however the Oncology Pharmacists know all the consultants and SPRs in oncology and haematology. We insist it s a consultant for the first cycle and send them back if it s not to be countersigned. 7. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has an agreed protocol book in place covering treatment guidelines for the management of common chemotherapy toxicities. If confirmed, please provide a copy of the latest protocol book used by your Trust. We currently use the common terminology/toxicity criteria version 3.0. Please find attached. 8. Please confirm or deny what steps have been taken to effectively plan the capacity of chemotherapy services by your Trust. If confirmed, please provide details of the steps taken by your Trust to plan the capacity of chemotherapy services delivered by your Trust.

3 Yes. The CPORT system is used to plan the capacity of chemotherapy services by the Trust 9. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has undertaken steps to survey patients views on their experience of receiving chemotherapy. If confirmed, please provide details of the steps your Trust has undertaken to survey patients views on their experience of receiving chemotherapy. Yes. Patients are given a questionnaire to complete following their treatment. There are also comment cards available on the ward for patients to fill in, these are confidential and are collected weekly by the patient engagement team. The results from the National Cancer Patient Survey are also fed back to the team and the information is used to help plan and develop the service. 10. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust provides information, education, support and advice to cancer patients receiving chemotherapy services provided by your Trust. If confirmed, please provide details of the information, education, support and advice to cancer patients receiving chemotherapy services provided by your Trust. Yes. Patients receive individual information, support and education regarding their treatment when they attend the cancer care suite. There is a volunteer therapist who can provide complementary therapy to help with side effects and aid relaxation; patients also have access to information regarding diet, exercise and other activities of daily living, a referral can be made to any other service that is felt may benefit the patient e.g social services. 11. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has local guidelines in place for urgent assessment and managing complications with cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. If confirmed, please provide details of the local guidelines. At the moment the Trust use the Christie guidelines; however local guidelines are currently being written for our use. 12. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has policies in place for the treatment of patients suffering febrile neutropenia as a consequence of chemotherapy. If confirmed, please provide details of the policies. The Trust has a neutropenic sepsis policy, and an audit has been carried out as mentioned above. Please find the policy attached. 13. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has local guidelines in place for urgent assessment and managing complications with cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. If confirmed, please provide details of the local guidelines. Please see response to question 11

4 14. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust provides personalised care plans for patients following the completion of a programme of chemotherapy. If confirmed, please provide details of the number of patients that received personalised care plans following the completion of a programme of chemotherapy in i) 2009/10 ii) 2010/11 iii) 2011/12. Each patient has a personalised chemotherapy pathway which is a new document for this year and has not yet been audited 15. Please confirm or deny whether your Trust has leadership teams in place for elective chemotherapy services and acute oncology services. If confirmed, please provide details of the memberships of these teams. Yes The Chemotherapy lead is Dr Greg Wilson Clinical Oncologist Dr Hitesh Patel Haematology Consultant Ray Green Lead Pharmacist Kay Gibson Aseptic Lead Sister Leo Anson Acting Lead Oncology Nurse The Acute oncology team is awaiting the appointment of an Acute Oncology Consultant Ursula McMahon is the Acute Oncology project lead. Janet Irvine is the Lead Cancer Nurse Dr Jenny Wiseman is the Palliative Care Consultant Dr Hitesh Patel is the Consultant Haematologist Dr Navtej Sathi is the Acute Medical Lead Dr Mueed Ahmed is Lead consultant for A&E. I trust that this information answers your original request, however if you are not entirely satisfied with this response please do not hesitate to contact the Information Governance Department on If we do not hear from you within 28 days we will assume that we have been able to accommodate your request under the Freedom of Information Act Yours sincerely Andrew Foster Chief Executive

5 PLEASE NOTE: The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. You must ensure you gain their permission before reproducing any third party information. If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to: Information Governance Department, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, Wrightington Hospital, Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure at: The Information Commissioner s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF