North East London conference celebrates the hard work of our cancer clinical nurse specialists

On 15 March, National Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist Day, Alison Hill (Director of nursing for Cancer and Palliative care at Barts) and Mary Flatley (Lead Cancer Nurse Homerton) hosted a special event at the Bishopsgate Institute for our Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) who work in North East London.

This brought together over 50 CNSs from across Barts Health, Homerton Healthcare and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

It has helped nurses to share experiences and reflect on how we can all work together to ensure better and more integrated care.

The day was an ideal opportunity for the nurses to:

• Network with colleagues across north east London and meet CNSs from other Trusts
• Be updated about cancer alliance initiatives around early diagnosis and personalised care
• Hear developments on cancer vaccines
• Share their own nurse led initiatives with colleagues
• Celebrate the role of CNSs

It has helped nurses to share experiences and reflect on how we can all work together to ensure better and more integrated care.

The day was introduced by Diane Jones, Chief Nursing Officer for NHS North East London Integrated Care Board (ICB), who talked about the role of the ICB, the Integrated Care System  (ICS) in north east London, and the importance of partnerships and nursing leadership within the ICS.

We had presentations by our Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care on Promoting Equity in Palliative Care access and provision for the LBGTQ+ community. Katie Ryan, Advanced Nurse Practitioner in haemato-oncology, described setting up a nurse led service for patients with myeloproliferative disorders. Noreen Chindawi, Anal Cancer CNS and Nurse Anoscopist, presented about the Homerton Anogenital Neoplasia Service and her role within it. Debbie Anderson, a CNS from Barts Health, spoke about CAR T-cell therapy, which is a very complex cancer treatment which requires very specialist care.

North East Cancer Alliance talked about a number of developments to promote early diagnosis of cancer and reduce inequalities, including a presentation from Meena Pawar, Programme Manager for the Targeted Lung Health Check Programme in north east London.

There was also an update on a planned pilot involving the Galleri blood test which looks for distinct markers in our blood that can tell whether or not we are likely to get cancer. Innovations such as developments in radiotherapy and research into the use of cancer vaccines were also amongst the presentations.

Mary Flatley commented: “The day was a huge success, and we achieved all our objectives for the event. With great numbers in attendance, we were able to build relationships, share best practice and inspire our workforce – as well as give them much deserved recognition for the vital role that they do.

“As well as engaging and informative talks. there was even a slightly different and fun interactive session which was facilitated by actors discussing challenging communication scenarios. Lots of food for thought!”