Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the Government has to ensure that people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer have access to a clinical nurse specialist as part of their care.
The number of patients with a diagnosis of secondary breast cancer who have a named clinical nurse specialist as part of their care, is not collected.
The independent Cancer Taskforce’s report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: A strategy for England 2015-2020, published in July 2015, called for every person with cancer to have access to a clinical nurse specialist or other key worker from diagnosis onwards. In May 2016, the National Cancer Transformation Programme published an implementation plan, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: Taking the strategy forward, which says that over the next year, NHS England will work with partners across the health system to agree the best way to deliver this.