Charity news

Getting It Right First Time

The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is a national NHS England programme designed to improve the treatment and care of patients through in-depth review of services, benchmarking, and presenting a data-driven evidence base to support change. GIRFT is part of an aligned set of programmes within NHS England. The programme has the backing of the Royal Colleges and professional associations.

The programme undertakes clinically led reviews of specialties, combining wide-ranging data analysis with the input and professional knowledge of senior clinicians to examine how things are currently being done and how they could be improved.

In August 2023, it was announced that GIRFT had launched a new specialty review into services for pancreatic cancer patients. The programme appointed a team of five specialist clinicians to lead a national review into services for pancreatic cancer patients in England.

GIRFT’s national review of services involves data-driven deep dives at all specialist centres and their referring hospitals in England, identifying their progress against the recommendations in the Optimal Care Pathway. It will highlight actions the NHS providers need to take to improve services, as well as gathering examples of good practice to share with other NHS teams and the NHS England Cancer Programme.

NHS England recently shared the first draft of their National Report for the GIRFT programme’s pancreatic cancer workstream with key partners, including Pancreatic Cancer Action.

The report reflects insights gathered from visits to 23 pancreatic cancer networks across the country. Pancreatic Cancer Action have been invited by NHS England and the Department of Health & Social care to review and provide feedback on all aspects of the report. The report looks at everything from diagnosis and surgery to nursing care and nutrition management. The team at Pancreatic Cancer Action are working with patients, families and survivors to review the report and provide feedback to make sure all patients get the care they need and the NHS get it right first time.

“As a charity, Pancreatic Cancer Action is proud to work with NHS England to ensure patients receive the highest quality of care. By working with patients, survivors and their families every day, we understand what challenges are experienced when faced with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and it was crucial that their voices be heard. This review will help us understand how to improve survivorship of pancreatic cancer by ensuring that no variability of care exists throughout England. By ensuring that all standards of care are equally high, we are transforming outcomes for patients and their families, and saving lives.”

Pancreatic Cancer Action Chief Executive, Joe Kirwin