Developing local cancer nursing services in the wake of a national policy

The publication of the Calman—Hine Report in 1995 initiated national scrutiny of cancer nursing services in order to develop them in line with its recommendations. This paper discusses the implementation of the Report in one area of northern England. An alliance of local cancer services was formed and 14 task groups then addressed a range of pertinent areas. The nursing task group was set five tasks. First, it undertook an information gathering exercise which identified specific needs mainly for education, training, and staffing. A series of workshops was then initiated in order to agree common principles to underpin a collaborative strategy for service development. This was then taken forward. This preliminary work is now being extended to mesh into a more multidisciplinary arena, working with other relevant tasks groups.