Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for the (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of bowel cancer.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Lord Darzi’s report has set out the scale of the challenges we face in fixing the National Health Service, and the need to improve cancer waiting time performance and cancer survival. In particular, he has highlighted the need to improve the number of patients starting their treatment within 62 days of referral, and increase the number of patients diagnosed at an earlier stage.
The NHS will maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) and ensuring timely implementation of the new CDC locations, and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services, and will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners. Furthermore, in 2024/25, we will continue to extend the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme to additional cohorts, specifically to 50 to 52-year olds.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to reduce the number of people waiting more than 6 weeks for a colonoscopy in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. It is unacceptable that some patients are waiting over six weeks for a diagnostic test, including for a colonoscopy. To cut waiting lists for diagnostic tests, each integrated care board will have a recovery plan for diagnostic services, including endoscopy as needed.
NHS England is continuing to develop gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy networks across the country, which will address variations in care, including in the timely access to care. The Department is supporting NHS England in completing the rollout and expansion of the community diagnostic programme, including delivering additional endoscopy capacity closer to patients in the community. GI endoscopy training academies have also been established, with one per region, to enable the training and education of the required workforce.
The National Health Service is delivering on a number of specific steps to reduce waiting times for GI endoscopy services, including colonoscopy procedures. This includes the establishment of a national transformation project to enable and support the timely recovery of GI endoscopy services, and investment into an expected net increase of 80 additional dedicated endoscopy rooms to expand capacity, as well as a number of Community Diagnostic Centres offering endoscopy services.