Sheena Lam, Nicola Davies and Rebecca Lloyd
Swansea Bay University Health Board
Late effects can arise many months to years after radiotherapy, when patients have been discharged from oncology services making it challenging to seek the right help, as other health professionals they contact maybe unfamiliar with the recognition and management of long term radiotherapy side effects. Currently, there is no established service supporting these patients treated in South West Wales.
Radiographers see patients daily as they deliver radiotherapy. They are very aware of both the short and long term side effects of radiotherapy that patients experience. Some radiographers become non medical prescribers and provide a treatment review service to support patients during radiotherapy, thus making them ideal health professionals to provide ongoing support for patients with long term side effects.
We plan to establish a late effects service managing the side effects of radiotherapy treatment for every cancer site treated. We initially will set up a pilot radiographer led late effects service at Singleton Hospital for patients who have received radical radiotherapy for prostate cancer at the Hywel Dda healthboard. Patients referred to the service will start initial management of side effects and if required, be referred to specialists for additional management. Our innovative approach will use digital PROMS (patient reported outcome measures) data to demonstrate the impact of the service on patient symptoms and quality of life. We are hopeful this will be successful and the service can further expand across for patients in other health boards and tumour sites.