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More resources for signposting and advice

Posted By pyxisqk44

"More resources for signposting and advice"

About: Western General Hospital / Radiotherapy

(as a service user),

Huge thanks to the radiotherapy team I dealt with during my treatment in November. The process of radiotherapy was something I was quite overwhelmed about before starting treatment, however everyone I encountered from the reception team to the staff were respectful, compassionate and made the experience less emotionally painful.

My only pieces of feedback would be to have more resources available for signposting and advice  (for example, I developed a bit of stiffness due to the radiotherapy towards the end of treatment & no one could give me any resources on how to assist this or sign post me in the right direction). 

I also wasn’t made aware of a change to my appointment times. These were checked during my CT for the treatment but maybe something that should be checked again at the first session  as I was told, just check your appointment list again, suggesting that it was my mistake when in fact I hadn’t been given the update. 

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Responses

Response from Elaine Reilly, Head of Therapeutic Radiotherapy, Radiotherapy, WGH, NHS Lothian 4 days ago
We are preparing to make a change
Elaine Reilly
Head of Therapeutic Radiotherapy, Radiotherapy, WGH,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 23/01/2026 at 12:26
Published on Care Opinion at 13:09

Thank you for sharing your experience of your treatment and for your feedback. We understand that the whole process of radiotherapy planning and treatment can be daunting, and I am really pleased to hear that the whole team were able to make the experience easier and less overwhelming for you. I will make sure that the radiotherapy team know the positive difference they made to your experience, and I know they will be encouraged by your comments.

Thank you for taking the time to let us know where we could make improvements to our service. We had also recognised that we needed to improve our sign posting for other advice. We have started a process of updating our radiotherapy leaflets to include more sign posting information. The two leaflets we give to all radiotherapy patients have been updated to include information about places to access further support, including phone numbers, weblinks and QR codes so it is easier to find the information that’s needed. We have plans to update all radiotherapy leaflets and we will be looking for further input from patients to ensure that these changes are meeting the needs of all people who attend radiotherapy. Our future goal is to ensure these are available on the Edinburgh Cancer Centre website.

I’m sorry about your experience you had about the appointment times. I have ensured that the teams know to check the list with patients on the first treatment appointment to make sure that no changes have been made. Your feedback will also be included in a longer-term plan to review how technology is used in the department to support everyone having the correct information at the right time.

I really appreciate the time you have taken to do this as it’s important to us that we make changes that are meaningful to the patients who have radiotherapy. If you did have any other feedback that you think would help improve the service, I would really love to hear from you again.

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