A J curve of interprofessional change: co-locating non-health partners in an oncology unit

This article examines how clinicians working in outpatient cancer care adapted to the co-location of a novel community support service, Improving the Cancer Journey (ICJ), which is designed to meet the holistic concerns of every cancer patient in Glasgow (Box 1). Since its inception in 2014, ICJ has supported more than 4000 people, especially those most in need due to social deprivation (Snowden et al, 2018). ICJ is offered to all people newly diagnosed with cancer via letter, but it is also available to people with existing cancers at any stage of their illness or recovery. To widen access, in 2016 ICJ was situated within outpatient services in local hospitals in Glasgow. The positive impact ICJ has had on patients has been documented (Young and Snowden, 2019). This article focuses on understanding how being newly co-located with ICJ affected the way clinicians worked. This is important to understand because it is a working example of integrating health and social care, a long-standing aim worldwide that has proved historically difficult (Heenan and Birrell, 2006).