Patients sharing their views at last year’s cancer listening event
Cancer patients from the Fylde coast are being invited to give their views at a special event to help plan the future of cancer services.
The ‘World Café Listening Event’ will be held on Monday, July 11, at a hotel in Blackpool and will give people an opportunity to share their experiences and help to improve services for others.
A similar ‘open space’ event, held in 2015, was the first of its kind in the North
West and the team of organisers said the response from patients and carers was overwhelmingly positive.
Sponsored by Macmillan Cancer Support, the event will be hosted by Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with the support of Fylde and Wyre Clinical commissioning Group (CCG), Blackpool CCG and Blackpool Council.
Due to participant feedback, two events will be held simultaneously on the day to enable patients who have work commitments to attend.
The afternoon session will start at 1.30pm and the early evening session will start at 4.30pm. A high tea will be served to allow all participants the chance to come together.
The organisers would like to welcome people of all ages to discuss their experiences as patients and carers at this year’s World Café event.
The aim is to identify common themes so that cancer services can be improved for everyone.
Jez Such, Macmillan Development Manager, said: “Our World Café Listening
Event is a way of inviting patients and carers to share their collective experiences to improve cancer services.
Deborah Loftus, Lead Nurse for Cancer and End of Life Care at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals
“We had an amazing turn-out last year and this year we want to engage with even more people who are affected by cancer.”
Deborah Loftus, Lead Nurse for Cancer and End of Life Care at Blackpool
Teaching Hospitals, said: “We are running this event as a World Café because it will be a structured conversational process.
“The intention is to facilitate open and intimate discussion. All participants will be invited and encouraged to speak and listen because the experience of patients and carers is important to us.”
Dr Karen Green, a Clinical Psychologist for the Trust, who was one of the
facilitators at last year’s event, said: “It was an absolutely fantastic event.
“It was a great opportunity for us to capture peoples’ stories about living with and treating cancer. Events like this, where people can share their experiences, are brilliant because they can help to shape the future of patient care.
“While many people now live after cancer treatment, there is often a life changing impact.
“That is the new challenge. People need follow-ups and support. They need access to the right sort of services to live well after cancer. This event is helping to establish what sort of services need to be provided.”
Patients and carers putting forward their views at last year’s event
After last year’s event a Fylde Coast Cancer Communication and Patient
Engagement Group and a Patient Participation Group were set up to consider the themes identified during the first event and there will be and update on progress at the World Café event.
The venue is yet to be confirmed. Participants will be informed when this information is available.
If you would like to participate in the World Café Listening Event please contact Marion Bennie, Cancer Service Improvement Facilitator at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, by phone on 01253 95 3365 or by email marion.bennie@bfwhospitals.nhs.uk