Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance held its first conference in March 18th, 2024, to discuss how to improve cancer services, treatment and care across our sub-region.
Staff from all areas of cancer care in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors joined patient advocates and representatives from charities and voluntary groups at the day-long event in Liverpool.
Guest speakers included David Fitzgerald, NHS England’s Director – Policy and Strategy, Professor Rowan Prichard Jones, Executive Medical Director at NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s Kate Lacey, Macmillan Cancer Support Metastatic Spinal Cord Compression Service Lead. Speakers from the Cancer Alliance included Senior Responsible Officer Liz Bishop and outgoing CMCA Medical Director, Dr Chris Warburton, with CMCA Managing Director Jon Hayes hosting the event..
The conference included workshops on various topics including psychosocial support for cancer patients; transforming lower GI cancer pathways; retaining the cancer workforce; embedding genomics in cancer pathways; community personalised care; tackling health inequalities; gynae-oncology service improvement and cancer performance in the region.
There was an exhibition of research-style posters explaining cancer-related projects from teams across the region, and charity and VSCO organisations hosted stalls promoting their activities.
Slides and information from the conference workshops are below:
Embedding Genomics into Cancer Pathways
SSCA ASPH LGI improvement, July 22 – Dec 23
Tackling Health Inequalities in a Cancer Pathway
A Roadmap Towards Collective Success in Gynae-oncology Services
Cancer Performance in the Cheshire and Merseyside Context: an expanded definition of performance and the role of the Cancer Alliance