Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance - Acute Oncology Transformation Project
UKAOS Spotlight for February/March 2026 falls on the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance - CMCA
The CMCA team have kindly shared some of the transformation work that has been undertaken across the alliance footprint. If you have team any questions for team then please contact UKAOS on this link and we will forward the details
The Urgent Cancer Care (UCC) Strategy 2024-2028 outlines the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance's (CMCA) plan to transform urgent cancer care (UCC) across the region. UCC is an important element of many cancer patients’ journeys, addressing the unplanned care needs of patients who become unwell due to a new emergency diagnosis of cancer, side effects of cancer treatment, or worsening symptoms related to cancer progression and other comorbidities.
CMCA's vision and mission for transforming UCC is to ensure that all cancer patients in Cheshire and Merseyside with urgent care needs receive timely, effective, and equitable treatment. The goal is to seamlessly integrate oncology and urgent care teams, enhancing outcomes through education, advanced protocols, and continuous data-driven innovation. By bridging the gap between unplanned urgent care and planned cancer treatment, CMCA aims to ensure clinical safety and improve patient experience.
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The Missed Opportunities Audit is designed to support individual organisations and the systems in which they operate, to ensure that patients who benefit from an alternative to ED are identified.
✓ It is intended that this is a collaborative exercise between system partners, facilitated by NHSE.
✓ Stakeholders should include ED clinical and operational staff, staff from alternative services (for example but not limited to Urgent Community Response, Frailty services, SDEC, UTC, Primary Care, Community Pharmacists, Admission Avoidance, Virtual Wards) and Clinical Advisors from NHSE to act as a ‘critical friend’.
✓ Missed Opportunities Audits have been carried out across the North West with Acute Providers to look at where alternatives to 2 | 2 | ED could have been used, this was the first time the methodology had been applied to a specialist Cancer service.
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The slide set above is a snap shot of the Cancer Hotline Transformation at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.