Cancer: Health Services

(asked on 5th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure the (a) experiences of and (b) quality of life for people with a cancer with a poor one year prognosis are monitored by national mechanisms so issues in care and support can be identified and addressed.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 10th November 2021

All people with a cancer diagnosis, including those diagnosed with less survivable cancers, are invited to complete the Cancer Quality of Life Survey. This is an initiative aimed specifically at supporting long term survivorship. For cancer patients who sadly do not survive for 18 months from diagnosis other approaches to assessing their experience, such as the Cancer Patient Experience Survey, will be more appropriate.

The Cancer Patient Experience Survey will capture experiences from people treated for cancer, including people with less survivable cancers. Due to the need for statistical robustness, there is a time lag between the experience of treatment and the survey questionnaires being sent out. This creates an issue for capturing insight about the experience of patients with less survivable cancers.

The Picker Institute Europe, which carries out the survey on behalf of NHS England and NHS Improvement, reviewed the survey in 2018 and as a result guidance to trusts was amended to streamline and speed up preparations for the survey.

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