PATIENTS with lung cancer are being encouraged by nurse specialists at Musgrove Park and Yeovil hospitals to start thinking about the future while they’re in good health.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s lung cancer teams at both hospitals each have three nurses, a cancer support worker, a cancer navigator, and a coordinator.

The team works closely with the trust’s respiratory and oncology consultants, as well as specialist surgeons in Bristol.

Angie Yarde, lead lung cancer clinical nurse specialist at Musgrove Park Hospital, says: “The prognosis for our lung cancer patients is not always good, sadly, so it’s vital that they start thinking about their future care as soon as possible, rather than leaving it until they’re too unwell.

“When we were contacted by Miss Jo Morrison, a consultant gyne-oncologist and the co-chair of a trust-wide group set up to discuss end-of-life care, to become involved in a project that aims to solve this very issue, we jumped at the chance.

“A letter was carefully designed, which we sought feedback from a number of community ‘Death Cafés’, and trialled giving this to patients, alongside a conversation about advance care planning.

“I feel that it’s really important that patients aren’t just sent an impersonal letter about whether they’ve thought about the future. It’s much better to use those in-person or telephone conversations we have with them on a regular basis, as an opportunity to talk about what can be a difficult subject.

“There are so many things included in the letter that people just don’t always think about, not just the bigger things like funerals and wills, but also the smaller practical things like computer passwords.

“Along with the letter we give out two patient information leaflets, one with a link to Marie Curie, which supports patients to work through their wishes, and the other is the Somerset Advance Care Planning document, which talks more about the power of attorney and how it works."

Angie recalled a lot of 'positive feedback' for the programme that NHS Somerset is set to roll out.

She said: “It was interesting that the major feedback we had was that 'I wish I’d had this earlier' which encouraged our lung cancer nurse specialist team to be braver and have these important conversations earlier in someone’s illness.”