National BME Cancer Patient Advisory Panel

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The first National BME Cancer Patient Advisory Panel was launched on 7 December.  The panel will provide a voice to patients and those affected by cancer from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and provide them with a vehicle for sharing their experiences of NHS cancer care services.

The panel aims to engage with commissioners to help support them reach their world class commissioning measures around engagement and listening to patients.

The panel is administered by a company called Quatrosystem (QS) on behalf of the National Cancer Action Team.  Interested members can join via the free phone number 0800 634 7382 or on the website.

Background
In 2007, the Cancer Reform Strategy (CRS) reported that "Patient experience surveys have shown that BME groups in general report a worse experience of treatment and care".

In the one year on report, CRS 2008,  the National Cancer Action Team (NCAT) committed to developing a national BME panel to provide patients and carers with an opportunity to voice their experiences of cancer services.

Aims
The National Cancer Action Team has set up the National Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Cancer Patient Advisory Panel to:

* Give cancer patients and carers from a BME background a voice and an opportunity to share their experiences
* Provide the NHS with information to help support and improve cancer services



Methodology
NCAT are working with other parts of the NHS, numerous charities and voluntary sector organisations recruiting cancer patients to the panel. Members of the panel are invited to participate for as long as they wish, and during the term of their participation will be contacted around 3 or 4 times each year. At the point of signing up, members will have indicated how they would prefer to be contacted (whether by telephone or e-mail), and this is the method that will be used ongoing.

Each 'wave' of surveys,  will concentrate on a different subject matter. An example of this might be: the patient viewpoint on how well they feel they understand their cancer, and how well they feel it was explained to them by NHS staff. Another example might be about their GP facilities.

Each survey will take no longer than 20 minutes to complete, and members will also receive key results via newsletter once everyone's viewpoint has been collected. The goal for the panel is to accrue over 1000 members - so that there is the best chance of representing all major ethnicity groups.



Themes
In the first year, the panel aims to look into the following areas

* Access
* Survivorship
* Treatment

Each survey wave will look at just one theme so NCAT can understand and explore each topic in detail.

NCAT will be working with PCTs and Cancer Networks across England to identify future themes. Within each theme, there will also be the opportunity for NHS organisations to suggest particular questions (which they have a particular need to know about or feel it is very important).

The information gained from the panel will help to provide information on the BME population of England as a whole and also about different communities.

If you would like to publicise the National BME Cancer Patient Advisory Panel you can download its information poster here. In addition, National Voices has a stock of promotional leaflets and posters for its member organisations to use - please email us if these are of interest.