November 2022

Issue 2.

NEWSLETTER

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

             Website

ukacuteoncology.co.uk

Thank you for registering as a member of the UK Acute Oncology Society.

We are very pleased to share news of our progress and future plans.

The aim of the newsletter is to: 

• keep you informed about the progress of the society  
• tell you about projects that the society are involved in and ask for your involvement/assistance 
• update you about the work of the society interest groups 
• provide links to relevant surveys and information 
• ensure that you are the first to hear about upcoming events/conferences 

This is our second newsletter, we think you will appreciate how far we have progressed in the last 6 months.  

1.Society Governance 

We have been successful in our application for charitable registration with the charity commission.

Our registration details are available on the website at this link along with details of UKAOS board members and their roles within the society.

UKAOS Board members have developed a partnership model to fund the society going forward. We are actively seeking corporate partners who wish to support the development of our society and acute oncology services within the UK. Please follow this link to review our partnership offer and current sponsors. 

2. Board Membership

We would like to wish Dr Andrew Stewart a very happy retirement and thank him for his contribution in the development of acute oncology nationally and for providing Haematology representation for the UKAOS board.

If you would like to join the board as our Haematology representative, please contact us.

We would like to welcome 2 new board members:

• Dr Anthony Cunliffe is the Macmillan National Clinical Adviser for Primary Care and Lead Clinical Advisor for and London he is also Joint Clinical Chair, South East London Cancer alliance. Anthony will be our Primary Care Lead.
• Joseph Williams is the British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) Chair and Digital / Research Subcommittee Member

3. Membership 

Our membership currently stands at 970 and spans the health care workforce:  

• Medical, Nursing and Allied Health Professionals 
• Acute Oncology, Oncology, Haematology, Acute Medicine, Palliative and Supportive Care, Primary Care, Therapeutic Radiography, Pharmacy 

 Membership remains free, the benefits of registration are: 

• being informed first about events and having the opportunity to access registration early.  
• participating in projects and surveys as a member of the Society distribution list. 
• In the future we hope that members may be able to access the members list to ask for information and advice. 

If this newsletter is being forwarded to you and you would like to become a member of UKAOS, please click HERE 

4. Special Interest Subgroups

The society has identified several areas of interest and workstream projects and have/are launching specific subgroups to lead on developments. 

Acute Medicine and Acute Oncology Subgroup (AM/AOSG)

The Society of Acute Medicine (SAM) and the UKAOS have formed a joint working group to develop acute oncology care as an integral element of acute medicine.

             Group leads

The Society of Acute Medicine (SAM) Conference will feature a dedicated Oncology session.

SAM undertake an acute medicine benchmarking audit annually. The Society for Acute Medicine Benchmarking Audit (SAMBA) provides a snapshot of the care provided for acutely unwell medical patients in the UK over a 24-hour period. The SAMBA data collection this year included questions on AOS operations in UK Trust and Oncology leadership within Acute Medicine - so in October we will know the extent of Oncology cover to Acute Medical Admissions in the UK and the number of Oncology related admissions on SAMBA Day (23rd June 2022).

The group are also starting work on ways to promote Acute Oncology/Oncology Education at the Core Trainee and Foundation Level and further developing an Acute Oncology Community of Practice. 

Quality Metric Subgroup (QMSG)

   Group Lead

The group will meet 4 monthly via TEAMS

Membership is open to any health care professionals with an interest in developing Acute Oncology metrics and quality measures

If you would like to join the group, please complete an enquiry form on the UKAOS website, and we will respond

The group would benefit from a deputy Chair, ideally from Business Intelligence – to support the chair, provide cross cover and to ensure an appropriate skill set and knowledge in Health Care data systems.

If you wish to support this group as deputy chair and help shape the way we collect and review AO data and quality in the UK then please complete an enquiry form on the UKAOS website, and we will respond

The focus of work will include:

Acute Oncology Nurse Subgroup 

(AONSG)

Group Lead

Alison is the UKAOS link member of the UKONS Acute Oncology Members Interest Group (AOMIG). We are working collaboratively with UKONS to develop review and implement acute oncology services. There are several joint initiatives in progress:

UK Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS) Competency Passports for recognition and management of Acute Oncology presentations.

The passports will provide/describe competencies required to deliver role specific acute oncology care.

The passports align with the Acute Oncology Knowledge & Skills Guidance document developed by UKONS, in 2018  UKONS.org.

This project has the support of Health Education England funding and aims to standardise Acute Oncology learning across multi-disciplinary groups within the 4 Nations.

View Poster at this link

Project manager - Gina Madera, Greater Manchester Cancer.

Review of the UKONS Acute Oncology Initial Management Guidelines led by UKONS AO MIG with UKAOS representation to ensure multi-disciplinary engagement and oversight.

This review has commenced and is being led by Naomi Clatworthy, UKONS AO Lead and UKAOS Board Member.

Will be completed early 2023.

24 Hour Triage elearning -UKONS and UKAOS are working with HEE and corporate sponsors to create a bespoke online education programme for the development and implementation of 24-hour triage services. This programme will be available to all.

Key elements:

• Principles of telephone assessment
• Use of the UKONS 24 Hour Triage Tool
• Helpline governance and patient pathway
• Knowledge and Skills Assessment 

        Radiotherapy Subgroup (RSG)

Radiotherapy is an important component of anti-cancer treatment in the planned and acute setting. The aim of this group is to ensure that we take a whole team approach to acute care by using this area to share information and innovation.

              Trainee Subgroup (TSG)

Group lead

­This subgroup is building links with the acute medicine group and would welcome trainees from all areas, including those in palliative care and haematology to build a range of experience and ideas!

There is particular interest in the following areas:

• Reviewing the current status of training in acute oncology across the U.K. in response to the new oncology curricula, and then considering how this could be improved
• Building links between trainees with an interest in developing a longer term career within an acute oncology subspecialty
• Sharing current practice and ideas for service development and quality improvement across AO which can be delivered by trainees
• Developing what trainees think are the key skills needed within acute oncology and how support can be developed to ensure trainees are developing these skills
• Collaborating with acute medicine to consider how each group can learn from each other.

We are currently trying to build a trainee group representative of the trainees across the U.K. and would eventually aim to have a representative from each deanery region across the 4 nations.

Please do get in touch using the contact form if you are interested in joining the group.

Treatment Toxicity Subgroup

(TTSG)

We are pleased to launch the UKAOS Treatment Toxicity subgroup.

This is an overarching subgroup that will cover the acute side effects/ toxicities that may arise as a consequence of any of the full spectrum of systemic anti-cancer therapy treatments, and work to provide support and guidance for the health care teams supporting patients.

Group leads

 We wish to recruit a core group leadership team that is representative of our membership. In particular we are looking for an Oncology Trainee, an Acute Oncology Nurse and an Oncology Pharmacist who will work with our consultant leads to take this group forward. Please contact philippajones@nhs.net or visit the TTSG page on our website for further information.

5. Activity and Projects - what else are we doing?                   The latest updates

Acute Oncology SDEC

In April we held a very successful 1 day conference centred around the delivery of Same Day Emergency care for acute oncology patients. Follow this link if you wish to see the conference presentations.

We have built on this enthusiasm and working with NHS Futures have launched The Oncology SDEC area on the NHS futures SDEC Collaboration platform. Please do register and visit this site, there is some really helpful information about developing SDEC services in other areas that can be applied to AO and you can also share your developments and experience with colleagues. 

NHS Futures held an inaugural online SDEC AO event in August. There is a recording of the meeting at this link. We also have some information on the UKAOS website.

Low Risk Febrile Neutropenia

Update of the Ambulatory Pathway for Oncology Patients with Low Risk Febrile Neutropenia (LRFN). Our recent questionnaire demonstrated that though there is a will to move forward with a LRFN service for patients it is difficult to find consensus and support for the implementation of the pathway due to local/regional requirements.

We have commenced a multi-disciplinary review of the pathway document with the aim of making a useful template that can be adapted for local implementation. In the meantime, we would like to continue with the collection of information about current implementation of LRFN pathways. Would you please follow this link to complete a short questionnaire and forward any pathway documents, audit data, feedback that you have to philippajones@nhs.net 

24 Hour Helpline Services Review

Cancer hotlines are a critical component of unplanned care and need to be robust, sustainable, and linked into the wider urgent care system. We are keen to map current services and define standards. As a first step can we would like to identify and contact the helpline leads in as many of the UK hospitals as we can, could you email this information directly to philippajones@nhs,net .

UKAOS are working with UKONS and UKCB on this project and will share information.   

We are making every effort to ensure that all projects and groups have multidisciplinary and 4 nation involvement. If you would like to be more involved, then please do register as a member of the Society and contact us for further information. 

5. Events

The society delivered an Acute Oncology session at the UK Oncology Forum in Belfast this year. It was extremely well evaluated, and we have been invited to return next year. The speakers have kindly made their slides available to UKAOS members , they can be found in our exhibition hall on the website.

We will be developing partnership events through 2022/23 and aim for a full 2day UKAOS conference in 2024.

We are very happy to advertise events that are being held nationally and regionally. Please do send us any flyers that you would like us to share and links to your registration pages. 

Once again thank you for joining this new and exciting society. Please do spread the word and let people know about us. We do want to reach as many people as possible and represent the Acute Oncology Patient and workforce on the national stage. 

Dr Ernie Marshall

(UKAOS Chair )

Dr Caroline Wilson

(Secretary)

Dr Hilary Williams

(Treasurer)

 Dr Claire Mitchell

(Education Secretary)

Naomi Clatworthy

(External Communications Secetary)

Philippa jones

(Membership Secretary)