The Macmillan Cancer Quality Toolkit for Primary Care (Wales) was developed to support GP practice teams to review their systems and processes in order to improve care for their cancer patients.
With more people surviving and living with cancer in the long term, primary care is playing an increasingly important role in cancer care.
Our team, in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and the Wales Cancer Network, developed the toolkit using learning from similar toolkits in England and Scotland.
The toolkit contains five modules covering the whole clinical pathway, from prevention and diagnosis to end of life care.
The modules focus on these five key areas:
Module 1: Detecting cancer earlier
Module 2: Prompt recognition and early referral
Module 3: Support through treatment
Module 4: Cancer care reviews and long term consequences of cancer and its treatment
Module 5: Identifying and supporting people with advanced serious illness
The toolkit combines educational information, best practice tips, resources and reflection questions to support both clinical and non-clinical primary care staff with quality improvement.
It also supports the delivery of person centred care. For example the holistic cancer care reviews can help to identify and support the wider needs of people living with cancer and their families.
The toolkit launched in May 2019 and participation is now closed. Seventy-six GP practices across Wales are participating and an evaluation report will be available in Spring 2021.
The evaluation will measure the impact of the toolkit, analysing the changes made by the practices to improve cancer care for their patients.
To find out more about the toolkit email WCN.WalesCancerNetwork@wales.nhs.uk