NHS England announces further investment in cancer services

Published: 05 January 2017 Ezine

NHS England CEO, Simon Stevens, used last month's the Britain Against Cancer Conference (part of the All Party Parliamentary Group) to announce a further £200m in funding for services in England over the next two years.

Cancer alliances will be able to bid for a share of the £200m NHS England funding for investment in early diagnosis and care during and after cancer treatment.

NHS England also announced that latest data shows national survival rates for all cancers are continuing to rise, with the one year survival rate increasing to 70.4%, the equivalent of around an extra 2,400 cancer survivors a year.

Simon Stevens was questioned about the cancer workforce and he said that increasing the number of radiographers was key in achieving NHS England’s aims. 

The SCoR’s director of professional policy, Charlotte Beardmore, and professional officer for radiotherapy, Spencer Goodman, were invited by CR-UK, Macmillan and Prostate Cancer UK to take part in a workshop to discuss how radiographers, both diagnostic and therapeutic, are developing practice to support improvements in patient care.

Nick Woznitza, clinical academic radiographer from the Homerton, presented a case study about the impact of effective team working including radiographer reporting, which was delivering reduced waiting times for imaging results. 

Simon 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 2000 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 patient organisations that we are on track to save 30,000 more lives a year from cancer.”

NHS England has also confirmed which hospitals are among the first wave to benefit from new radiotherapy equipment, as part of the £130million investment in linac replacement announced last month.

The hospitals in the first wave to receive new linacs 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

Charlotte Beardmore says, "It was really encouraging to hear about progress implementing the cancer taskforce recommendations, however more focus is needed, particularly in relation to supporting the development of the workforce."

Click below to download the leaflet, The Radiography Workforce: Current Challenges and Changing Needs, distributed by the SCoR at the conference.