Rapid Investigation Service for Suspected Cancer Experience Feedback Opportunities

The Rapid Investigation Service (RIS) only started in 2020 and is for people whose symptoms may be cancer but are hard to diagnose.  Once referred from their GP, a patient’s care is coordinated by the  central RIS team made up of different medical professionals; and people access the service by phone or video call.  Diagnostic tests are organised by the team but are carried out at the local hospital of people’s choosing.  Referral into the service and then on to either onward referral or discharge should be within 28 days so people are given their results and next steps quickly.  Here is a link to more information about the service and a patient information leaflet.

We would like people’s feedback on two different things. One way is to give feedback on a draft patient experience questionnaire.  The other is, if you experience anxiety and/or depression, to have a phone interview to explore how the service might best support you if you were to ever have to use the service.   More details about both of these are set out below. 

Giving feedback on the draft questionnaire
To date we have been carrying out telephone qualitative interviews with people about their experience of the service and are about to report the results and recommendations from those first 41 interviews to the Rapid Investigation Service.  We will share more about these and the service’s response shortly.

As more people come through the service, we need to move to a new phase of gathering people’s feedback and intend to do this through a survey that people can either complete online or as a hard copy.  We would really appreciate your comments on the survey before it is used with patients. 

The draft survey is based on a set of statements that follow a person’s journey through each step of the service and ask how they were treated.  There are 26 questions, and from initial testing we have done it should not take more than 15-20 minutes to complete.  If you would like to give your views here are some questions you might like to consider but please feel free to share any thoughts you have.

1. Are the questions clear?
2. Are the answer options the right ones?
3. Have we missed anything out?
4. Are there questions we should remove? And why?
5. Is there anything else that you think will improve the survey?

Here is the link to the draft survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SIWJLX/.  If you prefer to be emailed or sent a copy please contact Sue Newell on sue.newell@helpandcare.org.uk or 07595424198.
We would welcome responses by the 9th April. 

Giving your views about using the service if you have anxiety and/or depression
We would like talk with you about how the service might support people with anxiety and/or depression.  People are telling us that they get good emotional support from the service but we really want to explore with you whether there is more that can be offered or that they haven’t already thought about.  If you would like to know more about what is involved or to have an interview please contact Sarah Peters on sarah.peters@helpandcare.org.uk or 07966 927077.

Other ways people have already been involved
You might like to know that even before the service was up and running we engaged with people to ask their views on how the service should run, and we continue to do so.  We went to GP surgeries and a community event for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people to ask what they thought.  We also talked to patients using a similar service that they had accessed the service by phone.  Most people were favour of proposed service because of the convenience and speed of getting results.  Their feedback helped shape patient information and make sure the team prepared for things that people said might arise. 

We continue to engage with groups of people that we know are more likely to find a service provided by phone or video call more difficult to use. For example, we are currently working with people with learning disabilities and their carers, and Deaf people to understand their perspectives. We then working with the RIS team to make sure the service is accessible and supportive. 

Working with the Rapid Investigation Team, we know they are taking on board people's views and these are already making improvements for patient’s experiences.  Click here to find out more.