The Fountain Centre, in partnership with the Royal Surrey Hospital, proudly took part in NHS England’s 2024 Experience of Care Improvement Collaborative, a national initiative bringing together healthcare professionals and people with lived experience to improve cancer care.
Focusing on the administration of care, our project aimed to ensure that all cancer patients treated at the Royal Surrey NHS Trust Cancer Centre, receive timely and clear information on how to access wellbeing support through the Fountain Centre.
Co-led by Michelle Collin, Head of Cancer Services, and Anne Pike, Head of the Fountain Centre, and supported by executive sponsor Vicki Mumford, the project team also included Amy Granville (Lead Colorectal CNS), Lucie Broome (Lead Renal Cancer CNS), and Anne Brunton, our lived experience partner.
Over the past eight months, we have gathered data, interviewed patients and staff, run focus groups, and mapped referral pathways. A key strength of this project was the involvement of Anne Brunton, whose insights as a person with lived experience of cancer care were vital to ensuring our work was genuinely co-produced and patient-centred. Her contribution helped keep the voice of patients at the heart of every decision and direction the project took.
As a result of this work, over the next year, the Fountain Centre will develop new information resources and deliver educational sessions for clinical staff to raise awareness of our services and how we support patients. This includes producing a short film featuring real patient experiences.
Participating in this project has been a hugely positive experience. It highlights the strength of partnership working between the Fountain Centre and Royal Surrey NHS Trust and the power of co-production in shaping services that truly meet the needs of those they are designed to support.
