§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that every cancer patient within the NHS receives treatment from surgeons and physicians who are specialists in their field; and by when he expects this target to be met. [75774]
§ Ms BlearsAll doctors must work within the limits of their professional competence, as required by General Medical Council (GMC) guidance,Good Medical Practice, Doctors should not therefore be given or take on responsibility for patients if they are not competent to do so. This is to ensure that patients receive the highest quality of care and have the best chances of making a full recovery.
The National Health Service in England employs doctors in training grades who are not yet qualified to work independently and staff grade doctors, some of whom are trained specialists. NHS Consultants supervise the work of all of these doctors and are responsible for the care patients receive. Consultants are all trained specialists included on the Specialist Register held by the GMC.
The Department and more recently the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), has produced Improving Outcomes Guidance (I0G) on how services should be organised for specific types of cancer. The guidance includes recommendations on areas including the establishment of specialist multidisciplinary teams. Targets for the implementation of IOG form part of the priorities and planning framework.
The NHS Cancer Plan set out a target of providing nearly 1,000 extra cancer specialists by 2006. The NHS is on track to meet this target with an extra 500 cancer consultants between 1999 and 2002.
§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations his Department has received concerning delays in obtaining NICE guidance on cancer treatments. [75799]
§ Ms BlearsThe Department has received numerous letters and other representations regarding delays in obtaining guidance from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) on cancer treatments.
503WThe appraisal process, from referral to completion, has been designed to allow the full participation of patients, clinicians, companies and stakeholders. NICE is fully aware of the need to ensure that the process is as streamlined as possible, without losing any of the important safeguards it contains, in order to publish guidance soon after the treatments are launched.
It is not acceptable for funding authorities to refuse to fund a newly licensed treatment just because it is awaiting appraisal by NICE. Decisions on funding should be based on local consideration of the available evidence when NICE appraisals are awaited.
§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of non-listed cancer patients require—(a) diagnostic—X-ray—examinations, (b) ultrasound investigations for gynaecological and obstetric problems, (c) mammograms for breast cancer and (d) CT scans; and what plans he has to introduce these patients to the national cancer waiting lists published by his Department. [75766]
§ Ms BlearsData are not collected centrally on diagnostic tests for cancer patients. The National Health Service Cancer Plan set out waiting time targets for cancer. These targets aim to reduce the amount of time patients have to wait from urgent referral to beginning treatment, which will include the diagnostic phase, and from diagnosis of cancer to first treatment. We have no plans to include waiting times for individual diagnostic tests in cancer waiting times monitoring.
§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures are in place to ensure uniform reporting standards in cancer care; and if he will make a statement on cancer care data reporting standards. [78929]
§ Ms BlearsCentrally collected information on cancer services is limited to the collection of data to monitor the waiting times targets in the NHS Cancer Plan and the collection of data on coverage for the National Health Service screening services.
All of the definitions relating to these processes are nationally standardised and are made available in advance to enable local organisations to ensure that all data are formatted to the required standard.
The Manual of Cancer Service Standards, published 2 January 2001, provides a framework to enable local cancer networks to assess the quality of services they provide.
§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanisms he has in place to ensure the efficacy of cancer care data gathering measures. [78927]
§ Ms BlearsData on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cancer are gathered locally, in accordance with data definitions which have been widely consulted on and agreed. The data definitions are published on the NHS Information Authority website, in dataset change notices (DSCNs). The National Health Service is responsible for ensuring the efficacy of the data.