Calvary Mater Newcastle (CMN) is the largest cancer service in the Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD). Visits to their oncology outpatient cancer service have more than doubled in the past ten years. During post-active treatment, patients remain in the care of their specialist for a minimum of five years. As cancer survivorship continues to rise, this approach to care is no longer sustainable. The Time Maters diagnostic process showed that approximately 1 in 4 patients aren’t accessing the care that they need.
The Cancer Institute NSW has partnered with CMN and HNELHD to explore the opportunities within CMN cancer services to transfer patients receiving follow-up care to a shared-care model. The project aims to improve the experience of people affected by cancer, improve the experience of the medical oncology team and implement improvements to the delivery of care.
Implementation of the Time Maters project has commenced and is scheduled to conclude in December 2024. The process includes the collaborative design and implementation of a suite of solutions designed to enable successful shared-care planning and a patient pilot.
Working groups have been established with membership from CMN, general practitioners and patient representatives. The groups are responsible for the collaborative design and translation of shared care models, triage tools, localised internal processes and patient information practice at CMN. The patient pilot is scheduled to take place from January 2024 until December 2024.
An early outcome and process mixed-method evaluation will be conducted at the completion of the patient pilot. The project will evaluate the implementation of cancer follow-up and surveillance shared care between cancer services and GPs across two patient pilots. The domains of appropriateness and effectiveness will be assessed for quality improvement purposes.
View this project's poster from the Centre for Healthcare Redesign graduation August 2023.
