Enhanced Supportive Care

Enhanced Supportive Care (ESC) is a national initiative promoting better access and earlier integration of supportive care for those with complex needs.

When needed, ESC ensures that patients  have early access to specialist support, including symptom management, advanced care planning, and treatment benefit versus burden discussions.

The purpose of Enhanced Supportive Care is:
• To provide patients with rapid access to complex symptom management
• To provide a documented process accessible to all members of the ESC team
• Define clear channels of communication between supportive care professionals to enable prompt referral and response
• Joint working on projects – research, audit and service improvement– to enhance clinical outcomes and care
• Provision of supportive care outpatient clinics – with multiple supportive care specialties available within the clinic to help patients (e.g. palliative care, pain, future planning, treatment decision discussions, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and dietetics)
To be referred to the ESC team please speak to your Oncology team and they will send a referral.