The overall aim of the Transforming Care After Treatment Programme was to ensure that people who have completed treatment for cancer are supported and prepared to live an independent life with confidence but knowing who to contact and when.

To achieve this aim, Macmillan Cancer Support worked in partnership with the Scottish Cancer Taskforce and providing £5m in funding over five years, supporting clinical teams and other partners to review, redesign and test new approaches and models of cancer care after treatment. 

NHS Borders worked closely with Macmillan Cancer Support looking at ways in which we could improve our service for cancer patients after treatment within Borders.

During 2014-2015 NHS Border TCAT Project Team reviewed and piloted ways to improve services for all cancer patients within the TD9 (Hawick) postcode area.

Our pilot was based on the following principals:

  • All cancer groups are included
  • Each patient will receive a Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA) around the time of diagnosis
  • Each patient will receive a 2nd HNA on completion of treatment
  • Each patient will be given access to a directory of services, a web page and a newsletter to support any needs they may have
  • Each patient will be invited to attend a Health and Well Being Event
  • Each patient undergoing chemotherapy will be given an End of Treatment Summary (EOTS) on completion of chemo
  • Each patient will be offered the opportunity to attend a 1:1 interview to provide feedback on our pilot

This was a very successful pilot with lots of positive feedback from patients and healthcare professionals.

Although funding for the project finished it was agreed that it would grealty improve patient journey's if we were able to roll out some key aspects of TCAT across the whole of NHS Borders area. With this in mind it was agreed to:

  • embed the use of HNA's for all patient's with cancer
  • each patient to be offered the chance to attend a Health and Well Being Event
  • develop End of Treatment Summaries (EOTS) and trial the use of these - more information regarding this can be found under the End of Treatment Summary tab

During 2016, until mid 2017 we made strong positive steps towards achieving these aims. The work involved in developing EOTS was vast and it was therefore agreed to apply for some phase 3 TCAT funding to continue this work. In summer 2017 we were notified that we were successful in this bid and our TCAT work continues.