Cancer Services win more funding for better communication

Posted 17 October 2013

The GP Unit, Cancer Services, the Ingham Institute and the SW Sydney Medicare Local have won a second $50,000 grant from the Cancer Institute of NSW to improve integration.

In the first project, the GP Unit interviewed 22 GPs from across the five local government areas in the local health district to find out GPs’ views on cancer services and their role in cancer care. While receiving generally positive feedback about cancer services, it was sometimes hard to know where to send patients or get them in quickly. GPs believe they have an important role in caring for cancer patients and look for clear guidance from cancer services on what follow up is required. The result shows us that while the letters from cancer services were of good quality they often came too late.

Based on what we learnt we successfully applied this year for a second grant to improve communication. This project will work with cancer services to improve the timeliness of the communication to GPs about their patients with cancer.