North London Cancer Network

In response to the Cancer Reform Strategy’s commitment to shift care from an in-patient to an ambulatory setting, NHS improvement have been working on the transformation of in-patient care. Pilots suggest that there is potential to avoid unnecessary emergency admissions and to reduce lengths of stay, both for elective and emergency admissions. NHS Improvements work with its test sites has now lead to the publication of four ‘winning principles’ for in-patient care for cancer patients. These are:

• Assessment prior to admission
  Emergency patients should be assessed prior to the decision to admit. Emergency admission should be the exception not the norm

• Defined in-patient pathways
  All patients should be on a defined in-patient pathways based on their tumour type and reasons for admission

• Daily decision-making
  Clinical decisions should be made on a daily basis to promote proactive case management

• Encourage self management
  Patient and carers need to know about their condition and symptoms to encourage self-management and to know who to contact when needed

http://www.improvement.nhs.uk/cancer/WinningPrinciples/tabid/88/Default.aspx