One-stop lung cancer clinic

Overview

Wythenshawe Hospital introduced a one-stop clinic to decide treatment pathways for patients with lung cancer, which has provided a full holistic treatment overview on the same day, improved patient experience, and speeded up the start of treatment.  

What the organisation faced

Patients at Wythenshawe Hospital who had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and where a treatment should be possible with either surgery or radiotherapy, often needed to attend multiple appointments across different hospital trusts to find out which was the best course of treatment for them.  This could adversely affect outcomes through pathway delays and poor patient experience.

Improvement

In June 2022, the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance at Wythenshawe Hospital launched the One-Stop Lung Cancer Clinic.

The services within the pathway were mapped out and resources realigned to allow multidisciplinary professionals to provide care to lung patients on the same day, which helped reduce multiple hospital visits over prolonged periods of time and fragmented care.

The clinic provides a multidisciplinary approach to shared decision-making and the opportunity for patients to meet with different treatment specialists on the same day (where possible), including oncologists, surgeons, physicians, anaesthetists, oncogeriatricians and cancer nurse specialists, to make the treatment decision that is best for them. The initiative is a partnership between Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

Outcome

• The One-Stop Lung Cancer Clinic has improved patient experience and speeded up the start of treatment for concerned patients.  
• It has provided better support, advice and guidance for patients with a full holistic treatment overview on the same day.
• All the appropriate information is presented to patients in a succinct way with reduced delays.
• The clinic has reduced unnecessary delays in patient pathways.

Dr Matt Evison, lead clinician for lung cancer at Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, said: “By introducing this clinic, we have shown that the average waiting time from being referred to treatment to making a decision about which treatment is best has come down from 35 days to seven days. It’s been a really significant improvement in the patient pathway.”

Lessons learned

• Realigning existing resources to fit around patient needs can improve patient experience and outcomes.
• Reducing the number of hospital visits can improve clinic capacity by better streamlining resources.
• One-stop services can reduce waiting times for patients and help provide holistic treatment decisions that are joined up across different professionals.