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  • Agenda item
  • Agenda item

    NHS Waiting Times for Cancer Care

    Minutes:

    Rachel Jones (Director of Acute Strategy and Partnerships, K&M STP), and Ian Vousden (Kent & Medway Cancer Alliance Manager, NHS England South (South East)) were in attendance for this item.

     

    (1)          Earlier in the year there had been media reports about cancer service performance across England, with some local Trusts not performing so well. The overall direction across Kent was in the right direction but there was still work to be done. The data in the papers provided to the Committee went to June, but the data for July had arrived the day prior to the meeting. The NHS were now able to report 80% for the target to begin treatment within 62 days and this was up from 76% but still not at the 85% national target. NHS representatives stressed that the local work was focused on ensuring sustainable improvement and so patients were not being treated out of turn and backlogs were being dealt with to ensure the figures would improve slowly and stay there rather than simply showing a short-term improvement.

     

    (2)          Further local detail was provided on the 62-day target. Darent Valley Hospital was generally compliant and the most consistent. This Trust dealt with the smallest numbers and had good processes in place. East Kent Hospitals had the fifth highest number of referrals in the country and was making month on month improvements. At 55.6% in January, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust had been in the bottom four nationally but indicative figures for August suggested that they would be hitting the national target.

     

    (3)          A network approach was now being taken across Kent and Medway with a Joint CCG Committee set up to drive improvements across the system. It was explained that cancer services are organised by tumour site and the focus of a lot of work was on the four areas of worst performance – lung, upper gastrointestinal, colorectal and urology (specifically prostate).

     

    (4)          A new standard was being brought in across the NHS with a target of 28 days to get a diagnosis. Delays to cervical screening was a national issue, but delays in endoscopy was a specific problem locally and that contributed directly to the challenges in tackling upper gastrointestinal and colorectal cancers. There was a national target to diagnose 50% of cancers at stages 1 and 2, but in Kent and Medway only 25% were being identified then with 75% identified at stages 3 or 4. Cancer survival rates at 1 and 5 years were also tracked. Nationally, there was work on a quality of life metric for 1 year after treatment, but this was hard to measure.

     

    (5)          Making the shift to more cancers being identified at stages 1 and 2 would rely on referrals from primary care. Public awareness campaigns and training for GPs was essential so that people went to their GP earlier and the GP identified a possible problem. The conversion rate of referrals to positive diagnosis was 3% and these referrals were vital but a straight to test model was being developed so that diagnostic services could be accessed directly by patients.

     

    (6)          NHS representatives undertook to provide further data on quality and survival rates.

     

    (7)          Karen Constantine, a Member of the Committee, was unable to attend but requested a statement on this issue to be read out to the Committee. The statement focused on the need to have the right workforce and expressed concern about the impact from staff shortages. NHS representatives explained that, in general terms, recruiting the cancer workforce did not have the same challenges as in other areas. Many of the roles, like endoscopy, were generic ones. However, there were challenges in some areas like radiology nurses. In response to the request that the Committee consider writing to the Secretary of State to request the restoration of bursaries for nurses, there were some comments of support. In order to approach this question from a strategic perspective the Chair asked the Committee if it would be helpful to arrange a discussion at the Committee on the acute sector workforce. The Committee supported this proposal.

     

    (8)          RESOLVED that the report be noted. 

     

    Supporting documents: