Our Service Pledge Campaign

At Breakthrough Breast Cancer we’re great believers in patient involvement.

We know that by empowering patients to work in partnership with healthcare professionals we will develop the best ways of improving local services.

This is why we launched Breakthrough’s Service Pledge for Breast Cancer, our pioneering breast cancer initiative.

We work with breast units (45 to date, 15 more in 2012) and patients to review services and set improvement goals.

This is so everybody knows that each unit is giving the best service possible to its patients, from the first day they set foot in the hospital to the final day of their treatment.

We’ve witnessed a lot of outstanding improvements to services since we started out in 2003, here are just a couple of examples of the amazing work that’s been achieved:

• A photographic guide to surgery and reconstruction at the Royal Surrey County Hospital
  The breast team worked with their patients to produce a book of photographs showing the results of different breast operations to help them make an informed decision about their surgery.
  
• Look Good… Feel Better workshops at the Harley Street Clinic
  Patients told us that they would like beauty advice during and after their treatment. Look Good… Feel Better, a charity which helps women manage the visible side effects of cancer treatments, established a workshop at the clinic once a month which has been hugely popular with patients.

Breakthrough’s Service Pledge for Breast Cancer is launching in 15 additional hospitals across the UK, ensuring even more patients receive the gold standard services they deserve.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer believes breast cancer services are improved when healthcare professionals work in partnership with patients, and we’ve been working hard to make this year’s Service Pledge for Breast Cancer bigger than ever. Building on our previous successes, we are now working with 15 more hospitals and their patients to support improvements to breast care services.

The Service Pledge sites have been working with their patients and Breakthrough Breast Cancer over the last year to look at their services and find out what they are doing well and what can be improved.

Each hospital worked with specially appointed Patient Representatives to develop improvement goals. These goals are based on patient feedback so they truly reflect patient need. Patients’ views were gathered through surveys and in-depth interviews carried out by our Campaigns and Advocacy Network (CAN) Patient Interviewers.

Want to know more about how we’re leading breast cancer service improvements? Contact the Service Pledge team on 08080 100 200 or email servicepledge@breakthrough.org.uk.

If you’re interested in taking action to improve breast cancer services, join Breakthrough’s Campaigns & Advocacy Network (CAN).