Patients are used to being given a prescription for medicine and Cancerbackup has campaigned for people to be given similar information on their diagnosis and treatment, as well as other useful guidance, including how to claim financial benefits. Cancerbackup is now working with the Department of Health to ensure that all patients with cancer are given an information prescription to supplement their face-to-face consultation.

This personalised diagnosis and treatment information lays out the main points from a patient's consultation with a healthcare professional, as well as detailing any care plan to be put in place. These information prescriptions also help people to help themselves and to make treatment choices by signposting them to other sources of high-quality information and support on practical issues, like claiming financial benefits and obtaining prosthetics and wigs. An information prescription will not only be given to a patient at the time of diagnosis, but will be issued at different stages of the patient's cancer journey as the focus of their care and treatment needs change.

In 2005, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, Ask About Medicines and Cancerbackup formed a partnership to show their commitment to improving information provision for cancer patients. The Cancer Information Maze was the first study undertaken by the partnership and highlighted the difficulties facing many cancer patients trying to find relevant information about their illness and treatment.

Cancerbackup worked with the Mid Trent Cancer Network on a two-year project to help the network develop its patient information mapping and to evaluate the experience of patient information from the patient’s point of view. It became clear throughout the project that personalised and tailored information was the way forward with verbal information, supplemented by written information. This work has informed the Cancerbackup work on information prescriptions. Cancerbackup’s report of the project can be downloaded below.

The Government's 2006 White Paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say, recommended information prescriptions be introduced. The Department of Health then set up an Information Prescriptions Project Working Group to support the development of information prescriptions for people with long-term health and social care needs. Cancerbackup is a member of this working group. Currently information prescriptions are being piloted in a range of formats and settings for different long-term health conditions and will be introduced for people with long-term health and social care needs and those caring for them during 2008.

In May 2006, the partnership of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, Ask About Medicines and Cancerbackup hosted a workshop to discuss the role and application of information prescriptions for people with cancer. The workshop report is a useful resource for all those working in cancer care to help them plan how they will introduce information prescriptions for people affected by cancer.

For further information, please contact Elizabeth Lodge by email on elodge@cancerbackup.org

Press releases

• Department of Health announces partnership with Cancerbackup to provide information prescriptions
  18 October 2006
• New report on cancer reveals majority of patients don't understand their condition
  15 November 2005

Full reports