Improving Cancer Outcomes — House of Commons, 2015-02-05
Topic: Health
John Charles Baron (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Good communication and indeed consultation is terribly important, and it is one of the key issues that the cancer patient experience survey addresses in trying to gauge patients’ experiences. The NHS can sometimes forget that patients with cancer, like those with long-term conditions generally, are often very knowledgeable about their condition. They need to be consulted, and there must be better communication. That is why we should formulate the cancer patient experience survey better, and ensure we draw out the lessons to be learned so that we can take action to improve experience. I completely agree with my hon. Friend, and I look forward to hearing his speech Finally, may I touch briefly on data access? The effective use of data is the foundation for improving cancer outcomes. Good data are at the epicentre of how we are going to improve outcomes. However, I suggest to the Minister that there are problems. Health charities play a crucial role in driving improvements in the health service, including in cancer services. For example, Macmillan’s research has provided invaluable new insight into patient clinical outcomes and the accuracy of GP cancer referrals, which has helped to improve services. However, charities and others are finding it increasingly difficult to access routinely collected data, leaving vital projects stranded for months. In some cases, they do not get the data at all There are a number of reasons for that. First, information governance rules are being applied inconsistently. Changes to the legal status of bodies under the NHS reforms have led to confusion about who data can be shared with and, in some cases, have reduced the capacity for analysis. Secondly, different parts of the system are failing to work together. Both nationally and locally, organisations are adopting an increasingly fragmented approach. Furthermore, organisations that are responsible for releasing data do not appear to have the capacity to do so. In a recent Public Accounts Committee hearing, Cancer Research UK indicated that the research group had been waiting 16 months to access data on cancer waiting times As the Minister will know, the recent National Audit Office report on cancer services made recommendations on that issue. First, it recommended that the Health and Social Care Information Centre should be "held to account for how effectively it is discharging its responsibility to disseminate data to help drive improvements" Secondly, it recommended: "As a minimum, it should seek, and publish the results of, regular feedback from NHS data users." The cancer community was concerned to hear Sean Duffy call for greater pressure to release and use data at our Britain against cancer conference. To me, that sent a clear signal that further leadership from the Government was needed on this issue. When she responds, will the Minister outline what plans the Department has to clarify the data access rules and to ensure that they are applied consistently, so that we can plan and make proper use of them? That is the essential point In conclusion, I thank the Minister for being here and for being prepared to respond to the debate. I have not had a chance to cover a great number of areas, including inequalities more generally, cancer commissioning and survivorship to name a few. However, I hope and expect that other Members will touch on those important issues. I will end where I began: by focusing not only on the scale of the challenge facing us, with the news that 3 million people will be living with cancer by the end of the next Parliament, but on the opportunity. Because of many of our campaigns over the past few years, the NHS now has the tools that it needs to accelerate the improvements in cancer survival rates. The challenge that I set for the Minister today is to ensure that NHS England uses those tools to full effect to deliver the best outcomes in Europe and, quite literally, to save tens of thousands of lives.