Primary Care Conferences
The first Macmillan Primary Care Cancer Conference, in October 2007, brought together the Macmillan post-holder community and Primary Care Cancer Leads to share ideas and issues on a UK-wide basis.
Professor Mike Richards gave the keynote address, 'The Cancer Reform Strategy – Emerging Themes', giving an overview of the issues, progress and challenges met so far. He identified a number of levers for change in cancer service delivery in a reformed NHS including:
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choice
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stronger commissioning
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plurality of service provision
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national tariffs
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standards and regulation - all of which are underpinned by access to better information (presentation slides are available to download below).
The morning session continued with Ciarán Devane, the new Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, who presented Macmillan's vision for integrating all strands of its primary care community to act as a force for change to achieve its ambition of reaching and improving the lives of everyone living with cancer by 2010. Copies of both presentations are available to download below.
An expert panel session preceded lunch. The morning speakers were joined by Professor Jane Maher, Macmillan's Chief Medical Officer and Damian Heron, the Director of the North Wales Cancer Network. The audience utilised an electronic voting system (sponsored by Janssen-Cilag) to respond to key issues submitted by delegates during the registration process and also to those raised by the panel themselves.
The afternoon session commenced with a series of brief presentations from five delegates who discussed best practice examples from their own areas, including:
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the Parapet information project
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an ongoing care package for breast cancer
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a prostate cancer follow-up service
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a community cancer matron model and a palliative care masterclass.
If you would like further details on any of these projects, please contact Heather Stephens at heather@innove.info or call 0161 8359494.
The conference concluded with regionalised workshops which gave delegates an opportunity to influence Macmillan's forthcoming healthcare strategy, with particular reference to follow-up and survivorship - the ongoing support of people living with and affected by cancer. The summary of these discussions can be found below.
Useful presentations and materials:
Top Ten tips - PULSE [PDF, 52 kb]
Delegates' input on Macmillan's healthcare strategy [PDF, 127 kb]
Prof. Mike Richards – Cancer Reform Strategy Emerging Themes [PDF, 87 kb]
Ciaran Devane – Macmillan Update [PDF,109 kb]
Conference Evaluation Report [PDF, 95 kb]
Delegate responses to Cancer Reform Strategy Themes [PDF, 68 kb]