Trusts need a better way of communicating

When I was diagnosed with cancer I had two main misconceptions 1) that all chemo treatments were the same and 2) the NHS was one, huge coherent organisation. It wasn't until I transferred the delivery of my cancer treatment from Charing Cross Hospital to Mount Vernon that I realised how the NHS was divided into Trusts and that they didn't seem to have any way of sharing information about my care or scans etc (I also soon came to learn that Trusts have different chemo protocols but that's a separate issue).

I had to have regular checks on my heart due to my medication and Watford hospital was the most convenient to me. The only problem was that my consultant at Charing Cross Hospital could not access those results and vice versa if I had any procedures at Charing Cross which my consultant at Mount Vernon needed to know about. This became crucial to authorisation being given for my next round of treatment.

There needs to be a much more joined-up process to provide care that the patient can be confident about and to save nursing staff spending time trying to contact another Trust hospital for information.