Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to provide support to GPs to improve the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

NHS England is supporting general practices (GPs) to diagnose more cancers early by making funding available to embed clinical decision support tools within GPs. These tools are designed to support GPs in clinical decision making, such as whether to refer or request further diagnostic investigation in patients where they believe there is a risk of cancer, and identifying patients who may be at risk based on their symptoms.

In April 2020, NHS England introduced the ‘early cancer diagnosis service specification’ for Primary Care Networks. The specification is designed to support improvements in rates of early diagnosis, including ovarian cancer, by requiring Primary Care Networks to review the quality of referrals for suspected cancer and take steps to improve them.