Pancreatic Cancer: Health Services

(asked on 18th August 2021) - View Source

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 help improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients after diagnosis.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 6th September 2021

The Government is committed to the Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing three quarters of cancers at Stage one or two by 2028. NHS England and NHS Improvement are taking a multi-pronged approach which includes accelerating access to diagnosis and treatment, through their rollout of Rapid Diagnostic Centres and the new Faster Diagnosis Standard and the investment in new equipment such as the £325 million capital funding for National Health Service (NHS) diagnostics, which is enough to replace over two thirds of imaging equipment over 10 years old. The investment in this Long Term Plan commitment will help improve early diagnosis and detection of pancreatic cancer.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have recently announced that they will commission an audit in pancreatic cancer to help to reduce variations in treatment and improve patient outcomes. Scoping for this audit has begun, and the first data is expected in 2023.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guideline on the diagnosis and management of pancreatic cancer describes best practice in the care and treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer, including supporting their nutritional needs. Whilst NHS organisations and clinicians should take guidelines and quality standards into account, it is the responsibility of clinicians to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of each patient.

The “Help Us to Help You” campaign encourages people with symptoms to come forward. Cancer referrals in April and May 2021 were at an all-time high. An additional £1bn funding has been made available to the NHS in 2021/22 to support the start of this recovery of elective activity, including the recovery of cancer services.

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