"Professional skilled care for breast cancer "

After a diagnosis of Breast cancer from a routine Mammogram. I was taken on a journey like the Bullet train, surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy Adjuvant therapy followed one after the other and has lasted 1year 7months.

What was good was the outstanding profesional skilled care of 5 Hospitals Ross Hall, Beatson, Victoria infirmary , the new Victoria Hospital and Hairmyres.

Outstanding were the breast care nurses, Lynn Stirling, Ann Rafferty and particularly the staff of Clinic P, New Victoria who went the extra caring miles where you felt you were a person not a patient and their humourous banter raised my spirits. Also the facility that I could phone them for advice was particularly reassuring. From Agnes the receptionist to Rosie, Martin, Debbie they were all outstanding.

The District nurses in Hamilton were terrific too.

There are one or two things which would help I think;

1 ] You need a diary where you can have all the telephone numbers of all these Hospitals, Clinics, surgeries etc in one document. As well as a folder for all the leaflets medication, instructions and medication booklets to keep them all together.

2] NHS 24 Service was particularly frustrating when you needed a repeat prescription so that they were available out of GP hours and also for holiday cover.

NHS needs more Nursing and GP cover to enable a more proactive service for patients.And reduce the waiting times 4Hrs, plus Travel = 51/2hours in my case, when the cellulitis was spreading.

3] I feel patients with cancer also need someone overall with both surgical and oncology skills that patients could be referred to, as often you feel caught in the middle between these two Disciplines.

Thanks for this opportunity to share my Story