A recent article in the Daily Mail online regarding a patient’s personal experience of her cancer journey generated an interesting debate within our group of consultant oncologists here at Independent Oncology. The article highlights an important area that can sometime be overlooked by healthcare professionals when dealing with a patient’s diagnosis of cancer.

For our team, it highlighted the fact that many oncology patients being treated within the private healthcare setting are not always being offered the same holistic approach that has been recommended by the NHS through the Peer Review mechanism. It also highlighted the lack of private palliative care services available in private medicine, something that we have been working hard to change for the patients we treat.

Dr Hartmut Kristeleit our consultant breast specialist said “This article raises the important issue of sexual health which is often overlooked by health care professionals. The causes of sexual dysfunction in cancer patients are often multifactorial and other factors than chemotherapy will also have to be considered. The stress of a cancer diagnosis itself is sufficient to cause amenorrhoea (lack of periods), loss of libido and other psychological problems”

Dr Lal who is a specialist in thoracic malignancies also commented “Improvements in survival rates demand that oncology teams are sensitive to sexual health issues. The frequency of these physical side-effects are very rarely captured during chemotherapy clinical trials. This issue also underlines the value of UK cancer nurse specialists, which are not available to most US cancer patients”.

Dr Nick Maisey, who treats Gastrointestinal cancers added “This article brings to light the benefits of a standardised holistic needs assessment in the private healthcare system to match the one which is currently performed in the NHS. This assessment should be conducted with every new patient to cover issues around sexual health, emotional and spiritual needs. The assessment is designed to give patients the opportunity during their treatment to discuss any problems that they may be encountering, not just within their medical care, but within their day to day life without embarrassment and as a standard part of their care pathway”.

Dr Shaheen Khan, a palliative care and pain management consultant specialist with Independent Oncology, deals with all aspects of a patient’s well-being as well as pain management. He is currently advising the team at Independent Oncology as to how we can incorporate this essential part of a patient’s treatment into their care pathway as standard practice.

As a group, we feel that every patient we treat should have access to a holistic needs assessment and we are working along side a major private healthcare insurer to set the precedent for this as a standard part of oncology treatment we offer.

www.independentoncology.org.uk