HEALTH AND CARE ORGANISATIONS ACROSS COVENTRY & WARWICKSHIRE JOIN TOGETHER TO TACKLE HEALTH INEQUALITIES FOR CANCER
23 September 2024
The Integrated Care Board’s (ICB) Cancer Health Inequalities team and Macmillan Cancer Support joined together on Wednesday 18th September to deliver a workshop to discuss ways to tackle cancer health inequalities across Coventry and Warwickshire.
More than 50 delegates from local Trusts, social care, public health, and community and voluntary organisations attended the workshop which started with informative presentations about the key challenges surrounding cancer care from presenters from the ICB, West Midlands Cancer Alliance, UHCW Cancer Screening Hub, Primary Care and the Community Inclusion project in Birmingham.
Amongst the speakers was Shami, a cancer survivor and cancer patient carer who shared her experience accessing treatment as a refugee. Shami explained the cultural challenges she came up against around myths surrounding Cancer diagnosis and treatment methods. However, through the care and treatment services from Macmillian and the NHS, Shami has now taken on the role as an advocate within her community and is passionate about educating others and increasing awareness.
Michelle Park, System Lead for Cancer, said:
“It was fantastic to see representatives from all different parts of the Coventry and Warwickshire health and care system come together to discuss how we can make improvements to the way people access support for Cancer through integration and innovation.
“From learning about the positive work which is already being carried out in areas such as cervical cancer screening in GPs in North Warwickshire to the wider plans of the West Midlands Cancer Alliance; smaller groups also formed throughout the day to discuss ways we can look to increase uptake for Cancer screening, reduce DNAs (did not attend) for Cancer related appointments and how we can improve community inclusion through effective engagement and communications for awareness of cancer.
“Moving forward we will be continuing to build on this, and a dedicated Cancer Health Inequalities group will be created to help us start to pave the way for positive movements to tackle health inequalities for cancer.”
Further updates on the progress of the group will be shared as they are available.