Behind the scenes at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is a team dedicated to making sure cancer patients are getting the very best care possible.
The cancer multidisciplinary support team track patients through their cancer pathway – from urgent suspected cancer referrals and screening recalls, to treatment. While the team don’t have contact with the patients they manage, they are essential in ensuring that people with a suspected cancer get timely tests and investigations.
Emma Hall is a cancer pathway coordinator in the team, supporting patients undergoing investigations for colorectal cancers.
We sat down with Emma to find out a little more about the vital work she does in her role.
What does your role as a cancer pathway coordinator involve?
Essentially, our role is to try and get people through their cancer pathway as quickly and efficiently as possible. We track patients in the trust who are on a suspected cancer pathway from their first appointment, through diagnosis, and until they start treatment.
Going through a potential cancer diagnosis is a worrying time for people, and if they do get a diagnosis, the road to starting treatment is also stressful. That’s why we are constantly contacting departments within the trust – be it radiology, pathology, medical secretaries or other support teams – to bring patients’ appointments and tests forward where we can.
We also work closely with our counterparts at other trusts to allow a seamless transition of care if a patient has been referred to another hospital which specialises in the treatment for their diagnosis.
There are national targets that we need to meet. But there’s a patient and their family on the other side. Ultimately, our role is about doing the best we can for them.
What does an average day look like for you?
Each day I will look at the patients who are on a suspected cancer pathway, to check that they have investigations and appointments booked, and then work with the clinical and support teams to try and bring those forward. For example, if a patient has had a diagnostic test like a colonoscopy, and they require a scan, but that isn’t booked for four weeks, I will liaise with the relevant teams to bring this forward, to avoid delays for the patient.
Where you’ve got the likes of doctors, nurses and cancer care coordinators directly supporting patients, we’re doing it in the background – chasing people, pushing for quicker tests.
Everything we do is to make sure patients are getting tests and treatment as quickly as possible – to speed up that pathway.
How did you wind up in your role?
I was actually at university studying interior design when sadly my Mum passed away from cancer.
When I finished my degree, I saw the cancer pathway coordinator role advertised at James Cook. I decided to apply due to my recent experience experiencing a patient’s side of the cancer pathway.
I started at James Cook in 2008 and then moved to North Tees in 2019.
How does having that lived experience of supporting family with cancer help in this role?
I think most people will know someone who has at some point been suspected of having cancer and been referred into the hospital for tests. Having that experience of being on the patient’s side means you understand the worry, and you want to do the best for each patient, to lessen the anxiety they are going through. A lot of people in our small team have had that experience of being on the other side.
With us not having patient contact, it could be quite easy to see somebody as just a name. But when you’ve been on the other side, you know how anxious patients can feel, you can relate to it. It really makes you want to do your best for them.
What’s it like working in the team?
Our team consists of 15 people, and we each have slightly differing roles. Our team includes
- Cancer pathway coordinators
- Cancer trackers
- Audit facilitators
- Data input clerks
- Cancer analysts
The cancer pathway coordinators and cancer trackers each look after a different specialty. For example, I track the colorectal patients, another coordinator tracks the breast patients, another lung and so on.
Even though we each look after a cohort of patients and have slightly different duties, it’s important that we understand each others’ roles as well. Patients on a colorectal pathway will have different tests to a patient on a lung pathway. As a team, we need to have a good understanding of each pathway to help us do our jobs as effectively as possible.
What else does your role involve?
A large part of our job is collecting data for local and national audits and cancer waiting times information for NHS England. These are submitted on a monthly basis. We record information relating to a patient’s diagnosis, and other vital information, as dictated by the audits and cancer waiting times.
Some of the team, myself included, also facilitate and run the weekly meetings with the clinical teams. These are multidisciplinary meetings where consultants and nurses come together with other specialities like radiology, pathology, dieticians and palliative care.
In these meetings, a patient’s diagnosis will be discussed and the best treatment option for that patient will be decided upon. Although we don’t have a clinical background, our role is vital in these meetings, to ensure all information is to hand for the clinical team to make their decisions. We also ensure this is documented correctly.
What’s your favourite part of your job?
I like the fact that as well as working with the team in the cancer multidisciplinary support team, we also work very closely with our clinical teams. It feels like you’ve got a foot in both camps.
Ultimately though, knowing that you have helped a patient is the most rewarding part – even they’re unaware that you are there in the background. For every patient who gets referred into the trust on a suspected cancer pathway, we’ve done something to support them.