Guest Blog: Implementing a Virtual Clinic to Support Cancer Pathways

Written by: Rebecca Cook, Lead Cancer Manager at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Over the last year, the South Yorkshire Innovation Hub has worked with the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance to support its Cancer Innovations Awards Scheme, an initiative aimed at promoting innovation in cancer care. Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was selected as a finalist in the most recent round with their Virtual Clinic for patients with cancer. Twelve months on from the project’s start, we are looking at their progress and achievements.

At Barnsley Hospital, we are committed to improving access to cancer care through innovation. Through receiving a grant from the Cancer Innovation Awards, our latest initiative is our Virtual Clinics. This new model aims to reduce the need for patients to travel to neighbouring hospitals for oncology consultations, while ensuring continuity of high quality care and support from local clinical nurse specialists (CNS) who are involved in the consultation process.

The concept was shaped by feedback from patients and staff, and is designed to address digital health inequalities, especially for those who are hard of hearing or face barriers to digital access. By adopting a hybrid approach, we aim to make virtual consultations more inclusive and patient-centred.

The innovation is designed to improve access, reduce digital health inequalities, and enhance patient experience through a hybrid virtual model.

What have we learned so far?

Although the clinic has not yet gone live, significant groundwork has been laid to support the future of the initiative. We’ve identified Urology as the pilot tumour site, with Dr Qureshi, Consultant Clinical Oncologist from Weston Park Hospital as the clinical lead. Software testing has been completed, CNS availability confirmed, and governance structures discussed to ensure smooth implementation.

Engagement with stakeholders has been key to our success and we have made an active effort to involve a variety of parties early on. We’ve attended patient forums, collected feedback, and drafted evaluation tools for both patients and staff to capture real feedback and experience. One of the main lessons has been the importance of early clinician involvement and allowing adequate lead-in time for cross-trust projects.

What have been our challenges?

The implementation of the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system at WPH required careful coordination, which has impacted our original go-live timeline. While aligning priorities across multiple organisations has presented occasional challenges, our collaborative efforts remain strong and we are committed to working closely with key stakeholders to successfully embed the clinic. Throughout the project, we also identified varying levels of digital readiness across sites. We plan to provide ongoing support and monitoring to ensure consistent progress.

Next steps

We are now finalising CNS responsibilities and awaiting clarity on the EPR implementation timeline. Once we have these confirmed, we will commence the virtual clinic pilot and refine the model based on real-time feedback from both our patient and staff. We expect to go live towards the end of Q2/ early Q3 25/26.

Although we haven’t quite hit our initial timescales for implementation, our enthusiasm and goal remain the same to offer the best care possible to our patients. We look forward to embedding our virtual consultations as a flexible, patient-centred option within cancer care, while maintaining accessible, consultant-led services at a local level, supporting better neighbourhood health.

Contact:📧 rebecca.cook10@nhs.net