Communication

All patients who are for Palliative Care should be offered a prompt conversation with an experienced clinician from a primary or secondary healthcare team about their diagnosis and why they are for Palliative Care. Most patients would choose to have this conversation with a family member or another close person, present.

Patients and their unpaid caregivers have the right to know what their care going forward will look like – who will be involved, how they access care and support and any planned follow-up. They should be offered the opportunity to think and plan ahead for their future care.

Secondary care teams who diagnose people with lung cancer have a responsibility to inform patients’ primary care teams (GPs and District Nurses) about each patient’s diagnosis, their understanding of their condition and prognosis, and their current and future anticipated needs. An example Palliative Cancer Care Summary document is available and can be completed by the relevant clinician and shared with the patient’s primary care team by email/other locally agreed method.

Where an assessment isn’t undertaken by the secondary care team (e.g where a lung cancer team has not met a patient), a conversation should still be had with the primary care team and a request made for a GP and/or DN assessment in the community for a general palliative care assessment.

All patients with lung cancer who are for Best Supportive Care (BSC) should have an up-to-date e-Key Information Summary (eKIS) reflecting their diagnosis and giving an indication of future care preferences and plans. Where secondary care teams share written information summaries about patients, these should contain a section relating to future care planning (where discussed) and a request to primary care to update the eKIS with this information.