The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey for 2025 shows patients rate their overall care at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT) as a strong nine out of ten.

This is above the national NHS average and in the top 35% of all trusts nationally.

STSFT is a major provider of cancer services in the region, providing support for a range of cancers, as well as more specialist care for people who have head and neck or male cancers.

The latest results reflect STSFT’s continued commitment to improving services for people living with and being treated for cancer. The feedback, from over 900 local patients, is about their experience of diagnosis, treatment and support.

92% of patients felt their whole care team worked well together at STSFT and 90% said the administration of their care (how it was organised) was very good or good.

The trust achieved better than expected results in a total of 19 areas of cancer care*. This included how sensitively diagnoses are communicated, the support provided by care teams, access to information about treatment side effects, and how effectively services work together to coordinate care.

Patients also felt waiting times for diagnostic test results and cancer treatment appointments were about right, while many highlighted the support they received at home from community and voluntary services.

Caroline Tweedie, the trust’s Macmillan Lead Cancer Nurse, said: “We want to thank every patient who took the time to share their views. Behind every response is someone who has gone through, or is still having, cancer care. We are with them, and their loved ones, every step of the way.

“This survey asks people lots of questions and this helps guide us on where we need to improve care even further.

“We are proud that our patients continue to recognise the high-quality care and support they receive from us throughout their cancer journey. We’re also delighted to see we performed better than the national scores across so many areas.

“These results reflect the dedication, compassion and professionalism of our cancer teams. They work hard to make sure every patient feels informed, supported and cared for at every stage of their cancer experience.”

The 2025 results reflect improvements made in response to feedback from the 2024 survey. Over the past year, STSFT has strengthened its holistic needs assessments, helping staff better understand and respond to patients’ physical, emotional and practical needs. This work has been particularly focused within the Trust’s Emergency Departments and Emergency Assessment Units.

Access to rehabilitation and personalised care services has also been expanded, with additional support introduced for people who have completed treatment and those living with treatable, but not curable, cancer.

Following feedback about parking difficulties when attending chemotherapy appointments, dedicated parking spaces have been introduced and can now be booked through the trust’s Cancer Information Centres. The initiative has helped reduce stress and anxiety for patients undergoing treatment.

Staff training and education has increased so they can direct people to the right help. The trust also has a dedicated Cancer Information Hub to help support people.

The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey is carried out every year across England. It provides valuable insight into patients’ experiences and helps NHS organisations identify what matters most to people receiving cancer care and where improvements can be made.

*Key areas where STSFT scored above the national average.

STSFT score	National score
Diagnostic tests
85% of patients they waited the right length of time for test results	78%
Finding out they had cancer
87% of patients were told they could have someone with them	83%
79% felt they were told sensitively that they had cancer	75%
89% felt they were told about their diagnosis in an appropriate place	86%
89% were told they could return for more info about their diagnosis	85%
Support in hospital
95% of patients had a main point of contact within their care team	91%
81% felt they had the right support for their overall health and wellbeing	77%
77% were offered info about how to access financial help or benefits	71%
85% felt they could always discuss worries and fears with hospital staff	80%
Treatment and side effects
92% of patients felt waiting times at clinics / day units was about right	80%
77% had possible side effects explained in a way they understood	74%
77% were offered practical advice on dealing with side effects	71%
91% were given information about support available to help manage immediate side effects from treatment	88%
62% were able to discuss options to manage long-term side effects	56%
Support living with and beyond cancer
62% of patients got enough care and support at home from community or voluntary services	54%
53% got the help and support they needed from their GP practice	45%
41% got enough emotional support at home from community or voluntary services	33%

 

Source: https://www.stsft.nhs.uk/latest-news/our-latest-stories/cancer-care-south-tyneside-and-sunderland-amongst-best-nhs

Although the ambulance service itself is much older, the service as we know it today was formed on 1 July 2006, following the merger of the existing North East Ambulance Service with the Tees division of the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS).

Looking back to 2006, Facebook had only just opened to the public, YouTube was becoming the place to watch videos online, and Netflix was still posting DVDs through people’s letterboxes. Spotify didn’t exist, so if you wanted to listen to music, you were either buying a CD or convincing iTunes to take another 99p from your bank account.

Demand was already high for NEAS back then – managing around 362,000 emergency calls, 250,000 incidents attended, and over a million patient journeys that year.

It was reaching 76% of its most serious calls – then called category A calls – within the then target of eight minutes and had a total turnover of £73 million.

Since then, the ambulance service has grown from a transport-only model to one that has upskilled its clinical workforce to meet the changing needs of the population and NHS system. NEAS was also the first ambulance service to trial NHS Direct, which later became the NHS 111 service we know today.

Over the last year alone, the service answered more than 1.475m emergency 999 and NHS 111 calls, with more than 298,000 patients taken to hospital, more than 56,000 patients treated and discharged over the phone and more than 143,800 patients treated and discharged at home. It responded to more than 40,444 C1 serious and life-threatening incidents in an average time of 6 minutes 17 seconds.

Rather than being taken straight to the emergency department, more patients are now treated over the phone or in their own home and new pathways have been developed to provide better alternatives to A&E.

Andrew Hodge (pictured) joined what was then Northumbria Ambulance Service in March 1995. Having moved around the NHS in a variety of clinical roles, he returned to NEAS three years ago as the Trust’s first director of paramedicine, a new dedicated paramedic voice on the board to help guide the clinical direction of the service.

“When I look back at when I first qualified as a paramedic, for me it’s more of a reminder about what the paramedic could do compared to what we can do now,” he said.

“We were trained over six weeks to be an ambulance technician and a further 12 weeks to be a paramedic. We were focused on cannulation, intubation, life-saving drugs, cardiac arrest and trauma and I can remember taking every patient to hospital and not thinking once about why I’d taken them in. I think back now to some of the patients we took to hospital who would be fairly simple nowadays for the profession to think about managing in the community.

“Now we are much more broadly trained – yes for emergency care, but much more in the urgent care space – and are expected to be able to care for a broader range of clinical presentations.

“Whilst I can’t say what the ambulance service will look like in 20 years’ time, it will definitely need more diagnostics and innovations in technology and workforce to continue to meet the needs of the communities we serve.”

Sheila McLachlan has spent decades in the service, seeing it evolve into a profession focused on delivering the right care in the right place. Her daughter Amy Coatesworth joins a new generation, continuing a family connection to caring for others.

Sheila (pictured with Amy) said: “Every patient matters. Treat people how you’d want your own family to be treated.”

NEAS Chief Executive Kev Scollay said: “The progress that has been made in the last 20 years is staggering, particularly in regard to technology, equipment and the clinical skills of our workforce.

“The ambulance service has transformed into what was traditionally a ‘transport-only’ model into a multi-skilled organisation sitting at the heart of the NHS system, delivering highly skilled clinical care within the community and over the telephone.

“This anniversary provides us with a unique opportunity to take a pause and reflect on how far we have come over the last 20 years and, most importantly, to celebrate the people who make our service what it is, our amazing staff and volunteers.

“It also comes at a pivotal point for us in the year as we prepare to launch our new strategy, showing how our service aims to respond to the needs of our communities over the coming years.

“We have so much to be proud of as a service, and I look forward to seeing what the next 20 years hold for us.”

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a new duty under the Act to assess how local authorities work with their communities and partners to meet their responsibilities.

This includes promoting the wellbeing and independence of working age disabled adults, older people, and their unpaid carers to reduce their need for formal support where appropriate. Where support is needed it should provide people with choice and control of how their care needs are met.

CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities in order to create their requires improvement rating. CQC has given each of these nine areas a score out of four with one being the evidence shows significant shortfalls, and four showing an exceptional standard.

Quality statement scores

Score (2 = requires improvement; 3 = good)

How the local authority works with people
Assessing people’s needs – 2
Supporting people to lead healthier lives – 2
Equity in experience and outcomes – 2

Providing support
Care provision, integration and continuity of care – 2
Partnership and communities – 3

How the local authority ensures safety in the system
Safe pathways, systems and transitions – 2
Safeguarding – 3

Leadership
Governance, management and sustainability – 2
Learning, improvement and innovation – 3

Chris Badger, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said: “At this assessment, we found South Tyneside Council needed to make improvements in how it provides access to adult social care services to people living in the area.

“Although it had been an unsettling time for staff leading up to the assessment, due to leadership changes as part of a restructure to improve services. Staff were working hard to try and support people. This was increasingly challenging for them as 45% of areas in South Tyneside were among the 20% most deprived in England.

“The experience of unpaid carers was mixed. Some people told us they’d had a quick response to their request for an assessment, whilst others didn’t feel listened to or that their needs were understood. Improvements were also needed to ensure carers were able to take a break from there caring role, to give them a rest and help with their wellbeing.

“We heard people whose first language wasn’t English experienced barriers in getting the information and help they needed. Although translation services were available, more work was needed to ensure people’s needs were met.

“However, the local authority was working well with partner organisation to provide better outcomes for people. We heard about positive experiences from people after they’d been discharged from hospital, either back home or to residential care settings. They felt safe and supported, and there’d been clear communication during the move from hospital.

“Also, the authority had good safeguarding systems and processes in place to make sure people were protected from abuse and neglect. 76% of people who used services felt safe compared to the England average of 71%.

“South Tyneside Council has already identified areas for improvement, including boosting staff morale following a period of change, and has started work to address this. We’ll continue to monitor progress and look forward to seeing how their future plans mature.”

The assessment team found:

• People told CQC there were gaps in support when moving from children to adults’ services. They felt there was a lack of help arranging accommodation for them, and they felt that adult social care services weren’t as interested in their individual needs as much as children’s services had been.
• People provided mixed feedback regarding direct payments. One carer had used a direct payment for a day out, highlighting the positive mental health impact. However, they stated that they often needed support from the authority to help with issues, as they found the process complicated.
• Some people with complex needs were placed out of the area, as their specialist care and support needs couldn’t be met in South Tyneside.
• Staff carrying out Care Act duties weren’t consistently able to demonstrate a good understanding of the range of cultural diversity within the area. However, work was being carried out to engage with different communities to improve this.

However:

• The authority worked well with voluntary organisations to support people who were experiencing drug and alcohol issues. This was having a positive impact on people’s wellbeing.
• The local authority learnt from people’s feedback about their experiences of care and support. This was helping to drive improvements.
• Staff had access to ongoing learning and support, including specialist training to help care and support people.
• The authority had a commitment to early intervention and prevention. For example, people could access urgent basic equipment the same day due to the See and Solve team.

The full report can be downloaded here.

South Tyneside Council response

South Tyneside Council said it has already made significant progress in addressing the areas of improvement which had already identified, including strengthened oversight of performance and risk, improvements in data quality and reporting, continued investment in prevention, and work to enhance support for unpaid carers. Much of this work was already underway ahead of the CQC visit.

In its statement the authority added that it will continue to work with staff, partners and residents to build on these improvements and deliver high quality, sustainable adult social care services.

Coun Andy Heywood, Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Independence at South Tyneside Council, (pictured) said: “We support thousands of residents every year in often complex and challenging circumstances. This report reflects a specific period in 2024/25 and identifies both strengths and areas for improvement.

“We had already identified many of these priorities ourselves and have had a structured improvement programme in place for over two years. Since then, we have continued to make progress, strengthening leadership, improving consistency and delivering better outcomes for residents. It is important to recognise the positive findings in the report, including our work on safeguarding, early intervention, partnership working and the compassionate, person-centred care delivered by our staff.

“We are incredibly proud of our workforce and the difference they make every day in complex and challenging circumstances. Like many councils in this first wave of assessments, we provided feedback on aspects of the process, and we welcome the improvements the CQC is making as it develops its approach. Our focus now is on continuing to build on the progress already made and ensuring people in South Tyneside receive the high-quality care and support they deserve.

“This is a service under pressure, not a service in crisis. Adult social care continues to operate in a highly challenging national context, with rising demand reflected locally with thousands of requests for support each year. We will continue to work closely with staff, partners, providers and residents as we take this forward, with a clear focus on improvement, impact and better outcomes for people in South Tyneside.”

Sources:

https://www.cqc.org.uk/press-release/cqc-rates-south-tyneside-councils-adult-social-care-provision-requires-improvement

https://www.cqc.org.uk/care-services/local-authority-assessment-reports/southtyneside-0626/summary

https://www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/30837/CQC-Recognises-Strengths-in-Adult-Social-Care-as-Council-Drives-Continuous-Improvement

The latest NHS national figures published for March 2026 show thousands more patients across the North East and North Cumbria have been able to access treatment sooner.

South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT) is preparing for the Easter weekend, with Bank Holidays always a busy time.

It is also getting ready for six days of industrial action by the British Medical Association (BMA), which has announced resident doctors will strike. The action will run after the Bank Holiday weekend, from 7am on Tuesday, April 7, until just before 7am on Monday, April 13.

The Trust is making plans to make sure safe care continues to be offered while industrial action takes place.

It is also urging people to get ready for  the Easter Bank Holiday by making sure they have enough prescription medication and a well-stocked medicine cupboard, when there will be reduced access to GP surgeries and pharmacies.

The STSFT emergency departments will remain open around the clock to help in anyone in an emergency.

Its community nursing services will run as usual, including the Care Coordination Hub.

Out-of-ours GP services will accessible across its communities. Surgeries have details in place to help, should an appointment be needed.

The Trust is urging people to make sure they get any repeat prescription requests in within the next couple of days. This will give surgeries time to handle these.

People are also reminded to make sure their medicine cabinets are well-stocked.

Sheena Fish, the Trust’s Lead Divisional Director, said: “Our Emergency Departments are always very busy places and more so during the Bank Holidays. We’re expecting this to continue as the strike action takes place after the weekend.

“We will have safe levels of care available at our hospitals. But we always need to make sure we see those who are most seriously hurt or unwell first. That means anyone else could face a long wait and then still be told to go elsewhere for treatment.

“This is why we’re asking people to think carefully about where they should get help before they come to hospital. Some appointments might need to be rescheduled because of the industrial action but unless you hear otherwise, please still come in for your next visit.”

Where to look for help or advice

Anyone who needs advice or to check where is the right place for their care can use NHS 111 Online as a first port of call. In an emergency, they should call 999 or head for their nearest A&E.

Health advice and information is also available via the NHS App or the NHS website or a patient’s GP practice website, which link to a range of online services.

In most cases, people can order repeat prescriptions online. Opening hours for over the weekend can be found through this page: Think pharmacy first 

For children’s health advice people can download the Little Orange Book, which offers tips about a wide range of illnesses and conditions. It can be downloaded by clicking here: Little Orange Book

Those looking after children can also visit the Healthier Together website through or can download the app via their phone.

British Sign Language (BSL) speakers can make a BSL video call to 999.

Deaf people can use 18000 to contact 999 using text relay. More details are available via https://999bsl.co.uk/

If you are concerned about how much you, or someone you know, drinks, there’s lots of help available.

Speak to your GP, find your local alcohol support service, or contact Drinkline on freephone 0300 123 1110 or Alcoholics Anonymous on 0845 769 7555.

Source: https://www.stsft.nhs.uk/news/latest-news/patients-urged-think-carefully-resident-doctors-strike-six-days-wake-easter-weekend

Nick Flanagan is the Cancer Prehabilitation Team Lead and Digital Allied Health Professional at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT).

 

Away from work he is an extreme endurance athlete who takes on Ironman triathlons, ice swims and cross country runs.

 

The 34-year-old, who lives in South Shields, will face his “biggest test to date” by swimming across the Gibraltar Strait. He will leave Tarifa in Spain, the southernmost tip of Europe, and head for the North African coastline in Morocco, a route of 14.4km (9 miles) at its narrowest point.

 

Money raised through the feat will go to the cancer fund of the Trust’s STS Charity.

 

The swim is one of the Oceans Seven, a prestigious marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven gruelling, iconic open-water channel swims.

 

The strait is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Nick will also contend with the threat of killer whales, great white sharks and jellyfish, along with the wind, cold and cross-currents – all in just his Speedos.

 

He will set off between today (Monday March 30) and Wednesday April 8, when conditions allow. The Strait of Gibraltar Swimming Association will co-ordinate the crossing, which can take up to six hours to complete.

 

Two pilot boats will offer support, one for communication and navigation, the other for helping him eat and drink. If he touches one of the boats, he will be disqualified.

 

Nick said: “Training for the Gibraltar Strait has been unlike anything I’ve ever done, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

 

“It wasn’t just about getting fit, it was about preparing to move through one of the most unpredictable stretches of water on the planet.

 

“From long, meditative pool sessions to early morning sea swims, my life became a cycle of aching shoulders, cold water and relentless practice.

 

“I learned to stay calm when my hands went numb, to fight through headwinds that made me feel like I wasn’t moving and to trust myself when the water pushed and pulled in every direction.

 

“Strength work, stability training, and endless rotator cuff exercises kept me durable enough to handle the distance, but the biggest challenge was mental.

 

“Hours alone in open water teach you to sit with discomfort, reset your thoughts, and keep moving no matter what.”

 

He added: “The moment I knew I was ready wasn’t after a perfect session, it was after a messy, brutal one where I kept going anyway. That’s when I realised I am ready to attempt it.

 

“Most of my friends, family and swim team think I am crazy to even attempt it, and honestly, I agree.

 

“However, I strongly believe ‘What is for you, won’t pass you’ and this is my opportunity. It’s also raising money for a fantastic cause.

 

“All of my support networks have been brilliant in the lead up, but my mam Annette and boyfriend Jamie have been pivotal in helping me prepare.”

 

STS Charity supports patients, carers, families and staff. Funds buy additional equipment, improve facilities and make sure patients have access to the things that make their time in hospital a little bit better.

The cancer fund within it aims to offer more services and support its patients. This includes specialist rehabilitation programmes, equipment and resources, a better patient experience and life changing health improvements.

In Nick’s role, he leads the development and delivery of the growing Prehabilitation (Prehab) service. This is designed to optimise patients’ physical, nutritional, and psychological wellbeing before they begin cancer treatment.

Nick, who is originally from Waterford in Ireland, is coached by Russell White, an Irish Olympian and Commonwealth athlete. In addition to his own fitness sessions, Nick is a member of Wearside Triathlon and strength trains at Studio H in South Shields.

Anyone who would support his fundraiser can donate via this link: Gibraltar Strait Swim for STS Charity (Cancer Services)

Source: https://www.stsft.nhs.uk/news/latest-news/physiotherapist-swim-between-continents-help-care-his-cancer-patients