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 skin cancer patients.

To improve outcomes for skin cancer patients, NHS England is undertaking a number of interventions. This includes funding and programme management to support local cancer alliances in achieving the Faster Diagnosis Standard for skin cancer. NHS England provides implementation guidance, as well as collaboration and networking events, to support providers with ways to deliver best practice timed pathways.

Since 2023/24, NHS England has also been rolling out teledermatology services, which allow a virtual review of dermoscopic images. In providers where this has been fully implemented, improvements in workforce capacity have been seen doubling the number of patients that can be reviewed per clinic in some cases, and improving Faster Diagnosis Standard performance. Nationally, as of June 2024, 43% of all urgent suspected skin cancer referrals were managed via teledermatology, with the aim of reaching 50% by the end of the financial year.