Sectors
Get In Touch

New technology, earlier diagnosis and better coordination of care in cancer

The NHS is on-track to transform cancer services in England by 2020/21 according to a report published today by NHS England’s National Cancer Programme.

The report details the investment the NHS is making in cancer transformation, including £130m over the period 2016/18 in new and upgraded radiotherapy equipment and £200m over the next two years to accelerate rapid diagnosis and enhance patients’ quality of life.

The report describes progress across the field including:

  • Modernisation of radiotherapy equipment throughout the country.
  • New models of care introduced to ensure cancer is diagnosed earlier and improve survival.
  • Establishment of Cancer Alliances across the country to bring together clinical leaders, healthcare workers, patients and charities for better coordination of care.

“Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes – Progress Report 2016-17” describes the significant advances the National Cancer Programme has made over the past year as it moves towards the full delivery of the NHS five-year national cancer strategy.  The strategy was developed in 2015 by an Independent Cancer Taskforce that was asked to deliver the vision set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View.

As well as the work on new models and clinical pathways, the 2017 progress report also details action on standards and metrics.  Five pilot sites are now testing a new faster diagnosis standard that will ultimately ensure patients receive a cancer diagnosis or an “all clear” verdict within 28 days.

A new quality of life metric – the first anywhere in the world – is currently being tested in multiple sites around England.  Its purpose is to measure long-term outcomes for patients once treatment has been completed.

Cally Palmer, the NHS National Cancer Director, said: “Cancer survival rates have never been higher than they are today and patients are reporting a very good experience of cancer care.

“I am confident the NHS can deliver the recommendations of the Cancer Taskforce and I am certain these recommendations will improve survival rates even further, enhance quality-of-life for cancer patients and ultimately provide the very best cancer services to patients everywhere.”

Discover more from The Training Network

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Previous Posts

Four classical musicians performing a string quartet in a nineteenth-century rehearsal room, illustrating Baumol’s cost disease and the limits of NHS productivity. NHS productivity and patient pathways

Anita

NHS productivity isn’t simply about working harder or treating more patients. Roy Lilley explores how shorter patient journeys, fewer interfaces and smarter pathways could transform healthcare efficiency without compromising care.

Read More »
Unfinished concrete bridge ending abruptly above a valley while a high-speed train races along a separate track towards the distant horizon. AI transformation in the NHS

Horizon

AI has arrived before the NHS is ready. Regulation, infrastructure, accountability and digital foundations remain unfinished, leaving healthcare racing to complete yesterday’s modernisation while tomorrow’s transformation accelerates beyond it.

Read More »
Overhead view of a senior management meeting room after a meeting, with a long table covered in briefing papers, notebooks, laptops, water glasses and coffee cups. Empty chairs surround the table while two officials leave the room in the background. NHS England abolition feasibility

Responsibilities

Abolishing NHS England was supposed to simplify management and save billions. Instead, workforce, legal and financial complications raise an awkward question: who decided this enormous reorganisation was actually feasible?

Read More »
NHS finance staff working on spreadsheets in a hospital office beside a busy clinical ward. NHS pension contribution £5.4bn saving

Spreadsheet

Britain may be run less by ministers than Treasury spreadsheets. NHS pension assumptions could release £5.4bn, raising a bigger question: will the NHS benefit, or will Treasury take it back?

Read More »
Staff outside Quarry House in Leeds, the NHS’s northern headquarters. NHS devolution and regional power

Power

Moving NHS managers and ministers from London to Leeds is not devolution. Real reform means transferring power, budgets and authority to regions, not simply relocating command-and-control bureaucracy further north again.

Read More »
Busy NHS community health centre waiting area with patients seated while nurses and clinical staff move between reception and consulting rooms. NHS Neighbourhood Health

Plug

Neighbourhood Health is the NHS’s eighth attempt to shift care from hospitals into communities. Without proven targets, extra capacity, workforce and double-running money, history looks likely to repeat itself again.

Read More »
Female GP prepares for the working day in a GP consultation room, with a computer, examination couch and blood sample tubes visible. NHS prostate cancer PSA testing policy

Newspaper

A quiet change to NHS prostate cancer testing shifts power from informed patients towards GP judgement, raising serious questions about transparency, inequality, evidence, cost and the future of PSA testing.

Read More »
A working mother sits in her parked car outside a UK care home, overcome with emotion after visiting her mother with dementia while balancing work and family responsibilities. Andy Burnham social care reform

Answers

Andy Burnham’s social care reforms promise fairness for families, but funding alone cannot solve workforce shortages, capacity constraints or NHS integration. After seventeen years, voters deserve detailed answers, not aspirations.

Read More »