Headline message

People with cancer will get the information they need

Detailed goal

At least nine out of ten patients will be able to access the information they need at the time of diagnosis and during treatment.

Background information and strategies

How we will measure this

We will refer to national data on cancer patients' experience of information provision. If up-to-date information is not available, we will conduct our own surveys to assess cancer patients' satisfaction with the quality of information they receive during diagnosis and treatment, and how easy it was to get the information they needed.

The current situation

Between 1999 and 2000, the Department of Health surveyed 65,000 cancer patients. They found that 45% of these patients had received written information at the time of diagnosis, and that 64% had received written information at discharge.

In 2004, the National Audit Office surveyed 4,300 patients with breast, lung, bowel or prostate cancer. They found that around 61% of patients had received written information at the time of diagnosis, and that 80% had received written information at discharge.

We will achieve this goal by:

• Providing accessible and authoritative cancer information to everyone who needs it, including patients and their carers, through our award-winning website CancerHelp UK
• Responding to telephone and email enquiries through our team of oncology nurses
• Raising awareness of cancer clinical trials and directing patients to those most relevant to them, particularly through our Cancer Research Centres
• Promoting the results of our research to the media and the general public
• Developing novel methods of giving patients the information they need at diagnosis and during treatment.

We hope this work will also be supported by:

Other cancer charities

• Providing authoritative cancer information
• Improving the accessibility of information
• Providing support to individual patients

Government

• Working with cancer charities to develop and deliver tailored information to every cancer patient
• Developing and implementing effective communications skills training for healthcare professionals
• Supporting cancer charities in their efforts to improve the accessibility of patient information.