§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he proposes to(a) designate and (b) accredit a cancer centre for the North West of England as recommended by the Calman-Hine report; [79238]
(2) if he will list his criteria for (a) designating and (b) accrediting regional cancer centres; [79237]
(3) on what dates the regional cancer centres for each region of England and Wales were accredited; [79235]
(4) what factors underlie the length of time taken to accredit a regional cancer centre for the North West of England. [79236]
§ Mr. DenhamThere are no rigid criteria for the designation and accreditation of cancer centres. Flexibility in the early stages of implementation of Calman/Hine reflected regions' different starting points and allowed for approaches to the designation and accreditation process to fit local circumstances. In the North West, accreditation is carried out by external clinical audit and quality control of clinical services. This process will be developed and implemented for cancer centres in the North West in 2000–01.
As part of our work to bring Calman/Hine into line with the national service framework model, we are developing a set of common national standards and performance measures against the new performance framework which will apply across the country. These will be supplemented by a new set of milestones against which progress in implementing Calman/Hine and achieving national targets can be measured.
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