The Christie Institute for Cancer Education hosted SACT in Motion: Your Care, Your Community, Your Home on 13 July 2026, bringing together nurses, pharmacists, clinicians and service leaders to explore how systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) services are evolving across Greater Manchester.
The study day looked at how The Christie is delivering on the ambitions of the National Cancer Plan, bringing treatment closer to home and expanding community-led pathways so patients can access high-quality, personalised care wherever they live.
The morning covered shared workload models and the expansion of oral SACT, before moving on to how satellite and peripheral centres are helping bring treatment into local communities. Sessions on mobilising SACT and medicines optimisation followed, alongside a look at the workforce planning needed to keep pace with increasingly complex treatment regimens.
Gemma Jones, Lead Nurse for SACT Services at The Christie and chair of the event, reflected on the future direction of cancer services: "We need to continue to transform how and where cancer care is delivered" she said. "With increasing patient numbers and treatment complexity, delivering care closer to home wherever it is safe and appropriate can improve patient experience while helping services manage capacity and demand more effectively."
After lunch, attention turned to SACT education, advanced clinical practice and the horizon scanning needed to prepare services for what comes next.
Laura McNab, Specialist Practice Educator (SACT), who spoke as part of the SACT Education session, shared her key takeaways from the session: "As the evolution of cancer progresses, treatment regimens are becoming more complex than ever and we need knowledgeable practitioners to administer these safely," Laura said.
"Having a robust education programme reduces strains on an already busy, pressurised workforce, where clinical practice would otherwise diminish. Invest in educators so they can provide well informed, educational support to develop staff's learning, and inspire them to want to remain in this specialty."
The final sessions of the day focused on patient safety and experience, with discussions on learning from incidents, streamlining pre-assessment and managing capacity and demand through strong governance.
"The energy and engagement from delegates have been fantastic, and it's encouraging to see so many people committed to improving cancer services despite the challenges we're all facing. Ultimately, events like this help strengthen our professional community and ensure we're collectively delivering the safest, most effective and most patient-centred cancer care possible," Gemma concluded.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day, and to our specialist speakers for such an insightful programme.