Guy’s Cancer Academy – all you need to know

Next week sees the launch of the Guy’s Cancer Academy – a new education and training offer for all King’s Health Partners staff to help deliver world-leading cancer care. We take a look at all you need to know and how you can get involved.

What is the Guy’s Cancer Academy? 

Quite simply - Guy’s Cancer Academy is a plan to join up education and training opportunities for staff, so you can play a full part in King’s Health Partners Comprehensive Cancer Centre’s vision of becoming a world leader in caring for people with cancer.  

It will help all staff continuously innovate to improve the lives of patients and has been funded by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.  

What will it do? 

The Academy will help develop the knowledge, skills and attributes used every day by healthcare professionals to improve cancer care at local, national and international levels.  

The launch is just the start of a five-year plan to grow a comprehensive cancer care education, training and development platform. The aim is to offer a range of opportunities, including face-to-face education events, online learning resources, specialist masterclasses and conferences, and accredited courses. 

Guy’s Cancer Academy also aims to support and facilitate the integration of existing education and training that might be taking place in silos with limited collaboration between specialties/professions. We aim to maximise shared learning opportunities for all staff and trainees by supporting interdisciplinary, patient-centred, education, training and development. 

What's behind the Academy? 

In September 2016, Guy’s Cancer opened a £160 million cancer centre on the Guy’s Hospital Site – with a secondary site opening at Sidcup shortly after.  

The centre is a hub for King’s Health Partners and professionals across south east London, providing specialist cancer services, training, development and research.  

At Guy’s Cancer, the vision of being a world-leader in cancer care is being realised through three key aims: 

1. Patient-centred care: Putting patients at the heart of our services so that they can access the best possible care and experience. 
2. Research-driven care: Helping our patients to benefit from cutting edge research and the latest techniques. 
3. Clinically-led care: Our highly-experienced staff strive to ensure that our cancer services are of the highest quality. 

The new cancer centres were designed to increase capacity to treat more patients, provide treatment and care at more convenient locations, and use state-of-the-art therapies.  

These developments also aimed to improve the patient-experience by enhancing the environment in which treatment takes place, and by concentrating cancer services in single locations to promote seamless management. 

Over the past year more than 23,000 patients have been treated. This equates to 157,700 patient visits across the year or nearly 500 a day. Of all the patients we see, approximately 6,500 patients across the year are new to us. 

Staff across King’s Health Partners are key to the delivery of excellent patient care.  Around 450 staff members work in the dedicated buildings each day, but all King’s Health Partners health professionals will care for people with cancer in their roles.  

Who can take part?  

Following the launch, Guy’s Cancer Academy will soon be offering free continuing professional development opportunities to staff and students in King’s Health Partners and across south east London in the Accountable Cancer Network.  

They team at Guy’s Cancer Academy will also support staff within King’s Health Partners to run education and training events, such as masterclasses and conferences, develop online learning resources, and in the longer-term develop a portfolio of university-accredited cancer education. 

How can I get involved?  

You can sign up to the launch event on World Cancer Day on 4 February 2019. The day will also see the launch of ‘Symptom of the Month’ free, multi-disciplinary, educational events. The first of these events will focus on the management of cancer-related fatigue using physical activity. In March the symptom of the month event will focus on peripheral neuropathy. More details will be published soon. 

If you are unable to attend, the event will be streamed on YouTube Live for anyone wanting to join virtually!  The link to this will be available on the Eventbrite page and there will be tweeting throughout the day with the hashtag #GuysCancerAcademy. 

Watch this space for more details of how you can stay in touch with plans for the Guy’s Cancer Academy.  

As a European Comprehensive Cancer Centre, the King's Health Partners Cancer Clinical Academic Group brings together world-class clinical services, research and education for the benefit of cancer patients in south east London and beyond.