§ Dr. GibsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the treatment and management of myeloma after diagnosis is effective; [178824]
1278W(2) what steps are being taken to ensure equity of access to treatment and care for myeloma throughout the UK, with particular reference to new drugs and techniques that are not National Institute for Clinical Excellence approved. [178826]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonWhere a drug or technology has not been appraised or is awaiting appraisal by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), it will be for the clinicians and the funding authorities concerned to decide, in consultation with patients, whether that treatment is appropriate for an individual patient.
In 2003, NICE published "Improving Outcomes in Haematological Cancers". The guidance makes recommendations to the national health service on the organisation of cancer services for people with haematological cancer, including myeloma, in England and Wales. The recommendations set out in the guidance will be translated into a series of measures against which cancer networks will be peer reviewed. This will provide a mechanism to ensure the guidance is being implemented.
The Department has also issued general practitioner cancer referral guidelines to assist GPs in determining those patients who need to be referred urgently to see a specialist within two weeks. The guidance addresses myeloma. The referral guidelines are currently being reviewed by NICE and the updated guidelines are due to be published in March 2005.
In addition, myeloma patients will also benefit from the measures set out in the NHS cancer plan to improve services across the board for cancer patients.
§ Dr. GibsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent assessment he has made of whether delays are occurring in the diagnosis of myeloma; [178825]
(2) what assessment he has made of the effect of the two-week wait rule on the management of suspected myeloma. [178830]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonA two-week outpatient waiting time standard was introduced for urgently referred cases of suspected haematological cancers from December 2000. In the last quarter, January to March 2004, 99 per cent. of urgently referred patients with suspected haematological cancer were seen within two weeks of urgent referral. We have issued general practitioner cancer referral guidelines to assist GPs in determining those patients who need to be referred urgently to see a specialist within two weeks, those patients that can be referred for a routine appointment and those who can be safely watched at a primary care level. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is currently reviewing the referral guidelines.
The referral guidelines should be used to agree local referral criteria and referral pathways. All trusts have been encouraged to undertake local audit to assess the impact of the two-week wait on local services and to enable the appropriateness of urgent and routine referrals against the guidelines to be fed back to referring GPs.
1279WData is not collected centrally on the time taken to reach a diagnosis of myeloma. No assessment has been made nationally on whether there are delays in diagnosis.