NHS England Board paper 29 March 2018, paper 11
Highlight report of progress we are making in addressing priorities identified in ‘Next Steps’ including Cancer.
Cancer
Extract in full:
12. In January 2018, 93.8% of people who had an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer were seen by a specialist within two weeks, against a standard of 93%. In the 12 months to January 2018 there has been a 5.4% (1,288) increase in the number of patients receiving treatment for cancer for the first time.
13. Trusts continue to focus specifically on recovery of the 62 days from referral to treatment for cancer standard. January 2018 performance was 81.1% against a standard of 85%.
14. To date over £17m has now been invested through the regional teams to drive recovery of the 62 day cancer standard. Additional investment is now also being directed to the most challenged Cancer Alliances to improve the lung and prostate pathways in particular, which account for a high proportion of breaches.
15. In October 2016, NHS England announced a £130 million investment in modernising radiotherapy over two years to fight cancer and cure more patients. Funding has been confirmed for 26 replacement LINAC (radiotherapy) machines in 21 trusts in 2017/18.
16. Transformation funding for improving early diagnosis has been agreed and implementation commenced for over half of the Cancer Alliances and Vanguard Partnerships. In addition, half of the Cancer Alliance and Vanguard Partnerships have had funding confirmed to support the roll out of personalised follow up after cancer treatment, which will result in patients receiving the type of follow-up care that is most suited to their needs. This funding has enabled: a. Prostate cancer treatment: A pilot programme using high-definition magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans is reducing average prostate cancer diagnosis time to just eight days, and referral-to-treatment time to 20 days. b. Fitness for cancer treatment: The Wessex Cancer Alliance is piloting community-based pre-surgery fitness programmes and psychological support, to test whether this boosts recovery rates after surgery.
17. Progress continues to be made on supporting faster diagnoses of cancer for patients. NHS England is introducing a new Cancer Waiting Times (CWT) system and dataset from April 2018, which will enable measurement of the new 28 day Faster Diagnosis Standard. Hospitals will use the system to provide data on transfers between services from 1 July 2018 and on the new faster diagnosis standard from 1 April 2019. The standard will be in force across the country from April 2020.
Extract in full:
12. In January 2018, 93.8% of people who had an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer were seen by a specialist within two weeks, against a standard of 93%. In the 12 months to January 2018 there has been a 5.4% (1,288) increase in the number of patients receiving treatment for cancer for the first time.
13. Trusts continue to focus specifically on recovery of the 62 days from referral to treatment for cancer standard. January 2018 performance was 81.1% against a standard of 85%.
14. To date over £17m has now been invested through the regional teams to drive recovery of the 62 day cancer standard. Additional investment is now also being directed to the most challenged Cancer Alliances to improve the lung and prostate pathways in particular, which account for a high proportion of breaches.
15. In October 2016, NHS England announced a £130 million investment in modernising radiotherapy over two years to fight cancer and cure more patients. Funding has been confirmed for 26 replacement LINAC (radiotherapy) machines in 21 trusts in 2017/18.
16. Transformation funding for improving early diagnosis has been agreed and implementation commenced for over half of the Cancer Alliances and Vanguard Partnerships. In addition, half of the Cancer Alliance and Vanguard Partnerships have had funding confirmed to support the roll out of personalised follow up after cancer treatment, which will result in patients receiving the type of follow-up care that is most suited to their needs. This funding has enabled: a. Prostate cancer treatment: A pilot programme using high-definition magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans is reducing average prostate cancer diagnosis time to just eight days, and referral-to-treatment time to 20 days. b. Fitness for cancer treatment: The Wessex Cancer Alliance is piloting community-based pre-surgery fitness programmes and psychological support, to test whether this boosts recovery rates after surgery.
17. Progress continues to be made on supporting faster diagnoses of cancer for patients. NHS England is introducing a new Cancer Waiting Times (CWT) system and dataset from April 2018, which will enable measurement of the new 28 day Faster Diagnosis Standard. Hospitals will use the system to provide data on transfers between services from 1 July 2018 and on the new faster diagnosis standard from 1 April 2019. The standard will be in force across the country from April 2020.
