Retrospective evaluation of the Complementary Health and Wellbeing (CHW) service delivered at the Christie NHS trust UK.

Introduction: The Complementary Health and Wellbeing service has been offering integrative therapies to cancer patients at The Christie Hospital NHS Trust since 1997 and has not undergone an external service evaluation in that time. It is considered a pioneering service.
Method: An external academic was invited to undertake a service evaluation based on information and experiences since the implementation of services changes as the result of the COVID 19 pandemic. Service users and therapists were interviewed along with review of quality control data and documentation.
Results: Eighteen staff and eight patients were interviewed showing a high functioning and valuable service, offering a range of services to meet the needs of both inoutpatient and outpatient services. All staff are qualified and passionate, with a significant number of research outputs. However, the service is at capacity, and must rethink some delivery to ensure long term sustainability. Services offered include acupuncture, aromatherapy, massage, talking therapies and motivational behavioural changes. There is a high degree of patient satisfaction as the therapies help them manage their life affecting side effects, however accessing or being aware of the service before treatment commenced was a concern for patients.
Discussion: The Complementary Health and Wellbeing Service is well resourced, with all staff paid employees of the NHS trust funded via a charitable part of the trust. There is a self-funding education unit to provide staff training with participants coming from around the world. The therapists are expert practitioners who have undergone specialist training to work in this unique environment, however capacity to meet the needs of the service is limited, and there are gaps in the way patient evaluations are collected, which needs to be addressed for long term viability and future benchmarking. The changes to service to adapt to COVID-19 have become embedded within the service.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest WM has not had any engagement with The Christie Hospital NHS Trust prior to undertaking the evaluation and received no financial support from The Christie to conduct the evaluation. WM & JS currently are members of two committees through the Gattefossé Foundation, who also provided some funding support for the project. JS is employed by the NHS trust and was an integral part of facilitating the introduction of WM and the process required for QICA approval, however JS was not involved in any of the interviewing.
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