Improving Cancer Outcomes — House of Commons, 2015-02-05
Topic: Health
Jane Ellison (Conservative, Centre-right): I entirely agree; I think there is a balance to be struck. One of the issues that was discussed at about the time of the launch of the "Five Year Forward View", by the NHS among others, was that of moving consultant expertise from secondary to primary settings. There are a number of ways of looking at that. I urge Members to feed the points that they have raised to the taskforce, because it is exactly that kind of new way of looking at things that we want to capture in its work Since 2010-11, the Department of Health has undertaken a series of local, regional and national Be Clear on Cancer campaigns to raise awareness of signs and symptoms of specific cancer types, and to encourage people with such symptoms to visit their GPs. Decisions on further Be Clear on Cancer activity will be made during 2015, and will be based on all the available evidence relating to the effectiveness of the campaigns. I will argue strongly for their continuation, because I think that the case for them has been conclusively made. Many have been very successful, and they are evidence-based, which I think is important. The Department will continue to work with Public Health England, NHS England and all the relevant experts and stakeholders to keep the campaigns under review Let me briefly update the House on the ovarian cancer campaign, which was mentioned by the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson), and for which she is a long-standing and doughty champion. I recently lost a dear friend to ovarian cancer, so the issue is very close to my heart. Public Health England ran an ovarian pilot campaign in the North West television region between February and March last year, which, as the hon. Lady said, focused particularly on awareness of bloating as a symptom of ovarian cancer. Public Health England is waiting for the full evaluation results of the campaign, but we expect the interim report to be shared with the charities later this month. Public Health England has also agreed to meet them. A decision on how to proceed will then be made, at a national level A draft policy proposal for BRCA gene testing is among those on which NHS England’s clinical priorities advisory group is awaiting consultation. That consultation will probably take place following a 90-day public consultation on the decision-making framework. I understand that NHS England will soon consult on the lowering of the threshold for BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing in line with guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Let me now briefly touch on the point made by the hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton, from whose health expertise we benefited earlier in the week during another debate. In May last year, before the hon. Lady entered the House, we had a very good debate about cervical cancer and screening following a tragic case involving a young woman in Liverpool. She may find it interesting to read the report of that debate, in which Members described cases similar to that of the young woman to whom she referred If people have gynaecological symptoms that make them alarmed enough to visit their GPs, they should be referred for diagnostic tests. Smear tests are screening tests, not diagnostic tests. In fact, the best clinical guidance is that if there are gynaecological symptoms, a smear test will only delay possible diagnosis. I think it important to send young women the message that if they are worried about gynaecological symptoms, they should seek a diagnostic test rather than a smear test. My hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Rebecca Harris) raised the important issue of brain tumours. I can update her on the work that has been done. Representatives of the Brain Tumour Charity recently met representatives of Public Health England, and the meeting went very well. The charity is to give a presentation to the school nursing partnership in March. It is also going to contact the NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer to see how it can contribute to work on early diagnosis. Other actions were agreed on, but I understand that that particular piece of work is proceeding well As we know, screening is an important way of detecting cancer early, and under this Government there has been a £170 million expansion and modernisation of cancer screening programmes. They are reviewed regularly, and I am always happy to tell Members how further information can be submitted to the UK National Screening Committee On cancer waiting times, the NHS is treating more cancer patients than ever and survival rates are improving. In the last 12 months, nearly 560,000 more patients were referred with suspected cancer than in 2009-10, an increase of 60%. In 2013-14, almost 35,000 more patients were treated for cancer than in 2009-10, an increase of 15% Most waiting times standards are being maintained despite the growing numbers, although we are aware of the dip in the 62-day pathway standard in the last three quarters. Of course it is vital that all patients fighting cancer should have high-quality, compassionate care and we expect every part of the NHS to deliver against those national standards. Therefore, the NHS is looking urgently at any dips in local performance to ensure that all patients can get access to cancer treatment as quickly as possible. It has a specific waiting times taskforce looking at that Radiotherapy has long been championed by the hon. Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris). Radiotherapy can be a helpful treatment for some patients. His points about its success rate when used at the appropriate time were well made. As part of its recent announcement, NHS England also committed a further £15 million over three years to evaluate and treat patients with a modern, more precise type of radiotherapy, stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, or SABR, to which he referred. That new investment is in addition to NHS England’s pledge to fund up to £6 million over the next five years to cover the NHS treatment costs of SABR clinical trials, most of which are being led by Cancer Research UK. Those are for pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, biliary tract cancer and prostate cancer I can confirm that we are investing £250 million in two proton beam therapy centres. One is at UCLH—I saw the foundations being built when I visited the hospital recently; it was exciting to see that centre being built—and the other is at the Christie in Manchester, so that patients can be treated in the UK. As Members will be aware, patients are currently referred abroad On the cancer patient experience and the cancer patient experience survey, nothing could more amply demonstrate the importance of putting cancer patients’ experience at the heart of treatment and of the NHS response than the speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Jack Lopresti). It was impossible to remain unmoved by it. It could not have more aptly underlined the importance of taking patients’ experience into account. Therefore, I was pleased to see that the results of the 2014 cancer patient experience survey, published in September, show some improvement on many of the scores since the previous survey—89% of patients reported that their care was either excellent or very good Following the 2014 survey, NHS Improving Quality is launching a pioneering project that pairs highly rated cancer trusts with trusts that have potential to improve. That "buddying" programme will involve up to 12 trusts and will be directed at clinical and managerial staff so that we can continue to use that survey to drive improvements As to the future of the survey, on which there has been some discussion, my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay mentioned the new tendering of the contract, which NHS England is taking forward. For those reasons, it is unlikely that there will be a survey report in 2015. I know that that will be a disappointment to him, but it is very much the intention to run a survey this year for publication next year. NHS England is working with a range of stakeholders, including cancer charities, to ensure that that survey is even more effective.