Cancer service shortlisted for national award for involving patients in shaping outstanding care
Nottinghamshire Healthcare's East Midlands Cancer Alliance Centre for Psychosocial Health (EMCA CPH) service has been shortlisted in the Picker Experience Network Awards 2025. The team have been shortlisted in the category of 'Engaging and Championing the Public'.
The awards recognise best practice in patient experience across all facets of health and social care in the UK and beyond.
They are up for the award for their work to develop a Patient Involvement Collaboration (PIC). EMCA CPH strives to put patient experience at the centre of its decision-making processes. To facilitate this, it established the PIC, ensuring patients can be involved quickly in service planning and development decisions.
The service provides high quality training to cancer care professionals, mental health support for those living with and beyond cancer, and leads on research and evaluation, to ensure patients continue to be provided with the best possible support.
Becky Sutton, Chief Operating Officer at Nottinghamshire Healthcare said:
It is fantastic to see the East Midlands Cancer Alliance Centre for Psychosocial Health (EMCA CPH) service shortlisted in these national awards. They are dedicated to ensuring patients are at the heart of all they do, and that they receive the best possible care and support, during very challenging times. We're really proud of their work to involve patients with decisions around care, for now and in the future. Wishing them the best of luck for the next stage.
The PIC includes people who have experienced cancer, mental health issues and received treatment for those difficulties. As a result, PIC members can give a personally, experientially informed perspective on how such care could be improved.
Louise Beevers (PIC Group member) said:
As a founding member of this group, I cannot even begin to express how the work we have achieved so far has positively impacted my own life living with terminal cancer. The work we do goes a long way to future proofing services for generations to come too.
EMCA CPH is really dedicated to investing time, expertise and consideration into actually listening and actioning the patient voice. Not only this but the PIC group has also opened avenues for its members to become actively engaged in current, relevant and helpful research. The work that EMCA CPH and consequently, the PIC group do has personally given my life constructive purpose and I believe this to be a big contributing factor to my living longer, beyond my own expectations. The ability to contribute from our own lived experience can only improve, strengthen and solidify cancer care services.
PIC is not just a group, it is a lifeline. EMCA CPH initiating its existence, has made life for those of us living with cancer and beyond as that of a recognised and valued one and our unique input can only really positively influence care and services for those patients yet to come.
The group includes 14 cancer patients meeting regularly through the year. They can help to influence the way that NHS clinical services are delivered and developed over a large geographical area; informing the way research is designed and delivered to improve care, and contributing to commissioning discussions, so decision-making at the highest level is informed by the voices of patients' who have personal experience of targeted problems.
Dr Adam Hill and Dr Felicity Gibbons EMCA CPH Leads of the 'Patient Involvement Collaboration' Group said:
We are delighted that the Patient Involvement Collaboration (PIC) has been shortlisted in the Patient Experience Network Awards. Our central priority has been on ensuring patient voices are embedded into the fabric of the EMCA CPH service, to ensure we are meeting the needs of the patients we serve. It's thanks to the unique and invaluable contributions of the PIC group that we have made huge strides forwards in clinical practice, training and research, with patient perspectives being at the heart of everything we do. Therefore, whilst gaining national recognition is great for our service, we truly feel this recognition also goes to the members of the PIC group who have contributed so much to ensuring we provide the very best psychosocial care for cancer patients.
One example of the PICs involvement is in the innovations developed by the service. It has a number of digitally supported innovations to improve outcomes for patients, including personalised self-help smart-messaging programmes for common difficulties associated with cancer, including anxiety, low mood, sleep problems, nausea, and pain. The PIC has been involved in the design of all innovations, providing valuable insight into how the patient experience can be improved.
The award ceremony will take place on 2 October when winners will be announced.
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