Patients to be more involved in cancer care

CANCER patients in the Lothians will be told more about their treatment under an NHS Lothian proposal.

In partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support the scheme is aimed at making people more involved in their care.

It should help their recovery, experts said, and would allow them to have more influence over the path their care takes.

The decision was reached following an 18-month study which found people to be in favour of the move.

Dr Belinda Hacking, the trial's principal investigator, said: "We have significant findings indicating that the intervention had a positive impact on increasing patients' confidence about their treatment decisions.

"Cancer clinicians also reviewed the intervention positively as they recognised the importance of the systematic preparation for consultations and giving patients access to more personalised information about their care."