"Breast Cancer Care and Treatment"

About: Breast Surgery / Macmillan Breast Care Breast Surgery Macmillan Breast Care Dundee DD1 9SY Cancer Services / Radiotherapy Cancer Services Radiotherapy DD1 9SY NHS Tayside / East Scotland Breast Screening Centre NHS Tayside East Scotland Breast Screening Centre Dundee DD1 9SY Ninewells Hospital / Breast Surgery Ninewells Hospital Breast Surgery Dundee DD1 9SY Surgical Outpatients / Breast Clinic Surgical Outpatients Breast Clinic DD1 9SY

Posted by membermc43 (as the patient), 2 months ago

I felt like I was on a conveyor belt, quality checked by a large variety of nurses, mostly by phone. The process seems to be systems driven. It is very impersonal and not a personalised service. You are only seen face-to-face for a process or procedure or if you have an issue. The difficulty with issue based triggers is the patient does not know what normal is to recognise what an issue is.
No-one seems to take responsibility for your overall wellbeing.
It is hard to work out who is responsible for what.
You progress through stages with different professionals each time and even when the professional has same role it can be a different member of the team who speaks to you.
It might be helpful to know in advance who to relate to at each stage and what they can or cannot discuss about your care.
Breast Cancer Nurse
Radiotherapy Nurse
Oncology Nurse
I felt less than human and more about my body parts (breast in this case).

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Responses

Sarah Blair

Breast Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, Breast Screening,

NHS Tayside

Submitted on 30/09/2025 at 14:05

Published on Care Opinion at 14:12

Thank you so much for sharing your experience so openly. I`m really sorry to hear that you've felt as though your care has been impersonal and fragmented - that's certainly not how we want anyone to feel when going through something as difficult and personal as breast cancer treatment.
As a breast care nurse, my role is to provide you with consistent support, information and be a point of contact throughout your journey. I understand how confusing it can be when you meet so many different professionals, often with similar roles, and it's not always clear who to turn to. You are absolutely right that it can help to know in advance who to contact at each stage of care, and I will take this feedback on board to ensure we explain this better.
If you are unsure who to contact first, then your breast care nurse should always be a safe first point of call, and we can liase with other members of the team on your behalf. If you would like, then I would be very happy to arrange a time to speak with you directly to go through your pathway, explain who is involved at each step, and make sure you feel more connected and supported?
Thank you again for voicing your concerns - it helps us to improve the way we support our patients.
Best wishes
Sarah

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Damian Parr

Head of Therapeutic Radiography Services, Radiotherapy,

NHS Tayside

Submitted on 30/09/2025 at 14:19

Published on Care Opinion at 14:19

Dear membermc43, thankyou for taking the time to give your feedback and experiences. My name is Damian Parr, head of therapeutic radiography, I am sorry to read that your experience has been one of a process driven pathway. All the staff take pride in ensuring we treat everyone as individuals and are person centred but this isn't the experience you have had, and it would be helpful to us if we could discuss with you how we can improve on this. I would really appreciate a conversation with you to look at improvement opportunities and if you are willing, please contact me on 01382 632833.
Once again thankyou for your feedback and wish you well for the future.
Damian.

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Update posted by membermc43 (the patient) 2 months ago

Thank you for your prompt reply. It is too late to be given the information you describe as you are not likely to be in touch ever again unless I raise an issue. I think it may help if nurses in your service shared more than your first name. None of them ever shared more than this until now. I do not know who you are and how on earth I would get in touch with you specifically as patients can only speak to the nurse who phones in response to issues.

Sarah Blair

Breast Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, Breast Screening,

NHS Tayside

Submitted on 30/09/2025 at 17:03

Published on Care Opinion on 01/10/2025 at 06:03

My name is Sarah Blair and you can contact me through our breast care contact number which is 01382 633885. We don’t do named nursing as we have found we can provide a much quicker response to patients if they can speak to any one of us. Please do call and leave me a message if you want to speak further.
Best wishes
Sarah

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