Cancer care struggling in most areas

A review by NHS England has revealed that over 80 per cent of regions in England need to improve their cancer care if they are to achieve the national target of delivering “world class” cancer care by 2020.

The analysis investigated the performance of all 209 clinical commissioning groups in England in areas such as early diagnosis, waiting times, patient surveys and survival rates.

Only 29 of the 209 were considered to be performing well enough to meet the targets of the 2015 cancer plan.

The findings also showed that two thirds of regions were not achieving the target of seeing 85 per cent of patients starting treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, and in over 50 per cent of regions, 70 per cent of patients were not surviving for a year, another of the plan’s targets.

Macmillan Cancer Support’s Dr Fran Woodard, said the results were “very concerning”.

She went on to say “It highlights just how much the NHS is struggling to meet the challenge of delivering cancer services which meet all the critical needs of people with cancer.”

A spokesperson for NHS England defended the performance, saying “Cancer care is now the best it’s ever been, but we’ve set stretching goals to save thousands more lives by 2020.

“Measured against this ambition, it’s not surprising that most local services need to make further improvements, but we’re going to track progress transparently so everyone can see how we are improving care and outcomes for patients.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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