Continuing Care: Cancer

(asked on 16th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS patients suffering from cancer (a) with which they were expected to live for more than six months and (b) from which they were diagnosed as terminally ill and likely to die within six months were granted NHS continuing care in each of the last three years for which figures are available.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 11th January 2021

Determination of eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is based on an assessment of care needs and is not based on a specific medical condition, disease or diagnosis. Eligibility is determined by whether a person has a primary health need as set out in the national framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS Funded Nursing Care. Consequently, figures which are condition-specific are not collected by NHS England.

NHS England have interpreted ‘initial assessments’ to mean how many people go from an initial screening process to a full assessment. This data is not collected. NHS England have interpreted ‘full assessments’ to refer to the number of people who have a full NHS CHC assessment and are found eligible. Data on NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility rates is published quarterly and is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/nhs-chc-fnc/

Reticulating Splines