Pancreatic Cancer UK has launched a 'newly diagnosed pack' for patients to be used in hospitals throughout the UK. The leading charity aims to ensure that everyone diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK has access to information about the services that it offers.
The comprehensive information resource for newly diagnosed patients covers key information about the disease and is targeted at specialist nurses who are also able to add additional information specific to their hospital to the pack. In this way patients will be able to store all of the information about their treatment and care in one place.
The pack includes details of the Support and Information Service Pancreatic Cancer UK provides to patients and carers, including personalised telephone and email support, a Forum where people can talk to others in similar circumstances and a Live Chat service which runs fortnightly. The pancreatic cancer nurse specialists that run the Support Service provide users with additional medical and factual information, such as answering questions about symptom control or potential treatment or care options. Often this is on an ongoing basis as many people use the service multiple times. It is the only Support Service, dedicated specifically to pancreatic cancer, in the UK.
In a recent survey of Pancreatic Cancer UK's Support Services users, 100% of the respondents said that they were very satisfied and would use the service again and 100% would recommend the Support Services to others affected by pancreatic cancer. One user of the service commented,
"I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. The information was just what I needed at a vulnerable time. Unfortunately my Father died only a couple of weeks after diagnosis but I got what I needed at the time and would wholeheartedly recommend your service to anyone else in a similar situation."
Pancreatic Cancer UK recently achieved certification by The Information Standard, a health and care certification programme supported by NHS England, thereby establishing it is a provider of reliable, high quality health information
Anna Jewell, Head of Support and Information at Pancreatic Cancer UK, said, "Over the past year our Support and Information Services have gone from strength to strength, with the introduction of our new Live Chat service and now with the certification we have received from The Information Standard. We hope this serves to reassure patients and health professionals alike that the information we provide, including within our 'newly diagnosed pack', is reliable and of a very high quality. Demand for our Support Line in particular has been at its highest in the past year, much of which we can directly attribute to key episodes of the Coronation Street pancreatic cancer storyline."
For more information please see www.pancreaticcancer.org.ukor contact support@pancreaticcancer.org.uk
