RTD supports the PREVAIL initiative and funds its first Bowel Cancer Video for patients, their GPs and loved ones.
Being diagnosed with cancer is a very traumatic event with patients’ natural instincts telling them that immediate treatment is a necessity. Being diagnosed with cancer at a time of a pandemic or other major disruption to cancer services goes beyond ‘traumatic’. And what if, as a patient, you find out that your treatment is being delayed whilst someone else with the same type and same stage of cancer but at a different hospital is receiving their treatment?
A group of Medical Professionals from hospitals around the UK, recognising the disruption that the Pandemic was causing in the lives and care of those diagnosed with cancer, set out to find a way to improve the realities which they and their colleagues are facing.
Only this time, the clinicians are working with patients and GPs to put the patient at the centre of a programme called PREVAIL, which will hopefully change the way hospitals prioritise patients for their cancer treatment, based on their tumour type and risk as well as helping people cope with the high anxiety that comes with any cancer diagnosis.
The vision for the PREVAIL programme is:
“A simple, structured pathway for cancer care that aims to personalise and consistently prioritise treatment to reduce cancer deaths and improve patient wellbeing, accompanied by clear meaningful communication that empowers the patient to be an equal party to their treatment choices.”
Red Trouser Day is engaged in several ways with this very important landmark initiative:
- RTD as a member of the “patient voice” – a group of patients advising the clinicians involved in PREVAIL, giving them the patient’s perspective.
- RTD funds the first Patient Video – an animated infomercial video of the treatment path for a patient diagnosed with Bowel Cancer, providing an understanding of what to expect and how the PREVAIL system works, in assessing a patient’s risk and informing their medical team, so that treatment decisions are tailored to the patient, with their understanding and involvement.
- Members of RTD Community step up – transformation specialists in the RTD Community have helped clinicians, on a pro bono basis, plan the changes needed to incorporate PREVAIL into NHS processes.
Professor Gina Brown; Consultant Radiologist MBBS MRCP FRCR
Leading this innovative change programme for the NHS is Professor Gina Brown; Consultant Radiologist MBBS MRCP FRCR, Special interests: Colon and rectal cancer – diagnosis, staging and assessment of response to treatment Gastrointestinal malignancies – diagnosis and staging.
