Aim: To integrate and transform services that can support, avoid, maintain or reduce frailty within the Wessex population.

This will be achieved through:

1. Influencing recording of Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) to aid decision making at referral, tumour-site-specific group multi-disciplinary team meetings, Cancer Care Reviews, during and beyond treatment, end of treatment and on any hospital admission
2. Mapping the services (frailty and non-frailty) in Primary, Community, Secondary and third sector, that can assist with the assessment and management of frailty
3. Networking and building relationships between these services to support service transformation for this patient population
4. Influencing, supporting and promoting the adoption of MDT frailty clinics/work within secondary care oncology teams and tumour site pathways
5. Responding to training needs analysis and actioning the recommendations to enable this work to flourish

For further information or to discuss developing frailty and cancer pathways please contact: Mary Edwards, Frailty and Oncology Project Manager Wessex Cancer Alliance – mary.edwards@wca.uhs.nhs.uk

Workshops: Scoping frailty assessment and management in oncology services

Commissioned by Health Education England (South East), Phase 1 of the project (January–September 2023) delivered a programme of work across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset to understand workforce readiness in frailty and oncology. This included:

• Scoping existing education provision and training needs for staff supporting people with cancer and frailty
• Undertaking design sprints to explore challenges, assumptions and opportunities across sectors
• Delivering frailty and oncology awareness events to build shared understanding and highlight best practice

Links to report findings:

Frailty and cancer training needs analysis

Themes from the frailty and cancer workshops

To discuss the findings of these reports, please contact: June Davis, Allied Health Professional consultant adviser, Wessex Cancer Alliance – junedavis@alliedhealthsolutions.co.uk

Wessex Hosts Frailty and Oncology Conference

On Monday 15th January 2024 we welcomed colleagues to a Frailty and Oncology Conference. We were joined by multiple professional groups in Wessex, all with an interest or working in a frailty and/or cancer setting. Attendees included people from primary, community and secondary care across health and social care, as well as ICBs, Health Innovations and Academia. You can see the presentations from the conference here

Using The Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale on Cancer Referrals

All urgent suspected cancer referral forms in the Wessex region have been updated to include the Rockwood Clinical Frailty Score (CFS). This initiative aims to enhance patient outcomes by integrating frailty assessments into oncology pathways.  For more details, and a webinar of how to use the CFS and why, visit this page

Please contact Mary Edwards for further details: Mary.edwards@wca.uhs.nhs.uk

Level 4 Module: Identifying, assessing and supporting people with cancer and frailty October 2024

In collaboration with the Health Sciences University, we delivered a module designed for the supportive and assistive workforce. The unit aimed to empower staff working across secondary care, community services, primary care, social care, and the care home sector by enhancing their understanding of assessment, management, and care pathways for individuals with cancer and frailty. Several students have gone on to support development of frailty assessment and management in the teams. See the results of our survey

Please contact Mary Edwards for further details: Mary.edwards@wca.uhs.nhs.uk

Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust Lymphoma Pilot 2025/26

We supported HHFT to trial screening, assessment and management of frailty in the Lymphoid Pathway. This was an explorative pilot developed in collaboration between cancer services and frailty services within HHFT, to understand the potential and capacity to offer frailty assessment and management within the trust and what can be delivered by frailty teams within community and primary care settings.  The has been successful with the pilot rolled out to all haematological cancers, with the aim to roll out to three more tumour site pathways in 2026.

Please contact Lisa Young, Lead Cancer Nurse, for further details: Lisa.Young@hhft.nhs.uk

UHS Perioperative Medicine Pilot 2025/26

We funded a pilot in the UHS Perioperative Medicine Team, aiming to deliver the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment to people with cancer in this pathway, evaluating shared decision making and optimisation in the population.

Please contact Imogen Fecher (ACP) for further details: Imogen.Fecher@uhs.nhs.uk

Frailty First: Embedding Routine Assessments in Metastatic Lung Cancer Care  2025/26

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust are embedding routine frailty assessments for all patients aged ≥65 with metastatic lung cancer before their first oncology appointment.  Preliminary results are showing feasibility with early signs of fewer hospital admissions, faster treatment starts, earlier community referrals and improved oncologist efficiency.

Please contact Katie Poulter, Lung CNS, for more details: katie.poulter2@nhs.net

Senior Haematology Integrated Care Service (SHINE) University Hospital Southampton 2024

The University Hospital Southampton Haematology team have completed an 18-month project, which has been funded in the long term, that established a novel MDT approach for the management of elderly Non-Hodgkin’s patients. The MDT aimed to address all aspects of the patient’s healthcare journey post diagnosis. Please see the poster for more details

Please contact Amy King, SHINE Project Manager for more details: Amy.King@uhs.nhs.uk