MP presses Minister on how survival measures encourage earlier diagnosis
Yesterday in Parliament, John Baron MP spoke in a debate about the importance of cancer outcome [survival] measures in driving forward earlier diagnosis. Outcomes/survival rates measure how long individuals survive following initial diagnosis. The earlier cancer is detected, the greater the chance of successful treatment. The renewed focus on outcomes in the reformed NHS should encourage earlier diagnosis, because they will highlight those parts of the NHS which have low survival outcomes and so force these to raise their game.
But, during the debate, John highlighted the fact that at the moment there is no single position on outcome measures across the NHS. Whilst one- and five-year survival rates are included in the NHS Outcomes Framework (which sets the priorities for the NHS as a whole), only the five-year survival rates are included in the Commissioning Outcomes Framework (which sets the priorities for the local NHS).
John said:
“Our ambition is to save an extra 5,000 lives by 2015. The magic key is earlier diagnosis, because the earlier cancers are diagnosed the greater the chances of survival.”
“The APPGC has campaigned hard to get the NHS to focus on outcome measures, The Government has listened. However, different priorities are being set for different parts of the NHS when it comes to measuring survival rates. There needs to be coherence across the NHS as a whole.”
“Having raised this issue with the Cancer Minister, he has now promised to look into this and come back to me.”
Ends
Word Count: 268
Date: 20th June 2012
Notes to Editors
John is Chairman of the All Party Group on Cancer [APPGC]
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