06.12.16
Stevens announces £200m investment to improve local cancer services
NHS England CEO Simon Stevens has announced the first wave of NHS hospitals which will benefit from a new investment in radiotherapy machines alongside £200m of funding over the next two years to improve local cancer services.
Speaking at the Britain Against Cancer conference in London today, Stevens told attendees that survival rates are now at their highest ever and NHS England is increasing its efforts on diagnosing cancer early.
The latest data from NHS Digital shows that national one-year survival rates for all cancers continue to rise, as do individual rates for breast, colorectal and lung cancer. The one-year survival rate has increased to 70.4%, the equivalent of around 2,400 more survivors, while the inequality in survival rates between different parts of the country has also shrunk.
Stevens said: “Across the country, the NHS is now making great strides in upgrading modern cancer radiotherapy equipment and ensuring faster access to the most promising new cancer drugs.
“Because the quality of NHS cancer care has improved so much over the past year, an extra two thousand families will be able to celebrate the Christmas holiday with a loved one who has successfully survived cancer. It's an enormous tribute to dedicated nurses, doctors, scientists and patients organisations that we are on track to save 30,000 more lives a year from cancer."
The £200m fund announced by Stevens aims to encourage local areas to find innovative ways to diagnose cancer earlier while improving the care for those living with cancer and ensuring that cancer patients get individualised care.
England’s 16 Cancer Alliances, set up following a report by the NHS England’s independent cancer taskforce, are being asked to bid for a share of the £200m fund to use to invest in three priority areas: early diagnosis (e.g. diagnostic tools and better local communications systems), care during and after treatment, and after-cancer care such as more intensive clinical support.
The fifteen hospitals which will receive LINACs (linear accelerators) in NHS England’s first wave of investment are:
- North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust
- The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
- Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
- University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
- Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
- Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The announcements follow the recent publication of a national scheme which rewards hospitals for preventing cancer and improving cancer patients’ quality of life, such as by supporting medium-risk drinkers and smokers and systematically reviewing patient responses to chemotherapy treatment.
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