The Cancer Plan
3.The NHS Plan, published in July, set out the government's plans for investment and reform right across the NHS, to develop a health service for the 21st century, offering fast, convenient, high quality care, with patients at the centre. The Plan identified cancer services as a high priority to benefit from these improvements.
It promised progress on cancer prevention, on research and on improved access to services. This Cancer Plan now sets out how these improvements will be introduced. The Cancer Plan shows how cancer services will benefit from increased investment: how investment in staff will respond to shortages in key specialities and enable services to expand; and how investment in new updated equipment will enable faster access to diagnosis and treatment.
4. And the Plan sets out how this investment will need to be accompanied by reform:
- through new ways of working to streamline cancer services around the needs of the patient; through extending the roles of radiographers, nurses and other staff;
- and through guidance to ensure high standards of treatment and care are in place right across the country.
5. The Cancer Plan is a practical document for the NHS and its partners, setting out the actions and milestones that will deliver the fastest improvement in cancer services anywhere in Europe over the next five years. By 2010, our five year survival rates for cancer will compare with the best in Europe.
6. At the heart of the Plan are three new commitments. These will be:
In addition to the existing Smoking Kills target of reducing smoking in adults from 28% to 24% by 2010, new national and local targets to address the gap between socio-economic groups in smoking rates and the resulting risks of cancer and heart disease:
- we shall reduce smoking rates among manual groups from 32% in 1998 to 26% by 2010, so that we can narrow the health gap
- we shall set local targets making explicit what this means for the 20 health authorities with the highest smoking rates.
New goals and targets to reduce waiting times for diagnosis and treatment so that:
- the ultimate goal is that no one should wait longer than one month from an urgent referral for suspected cancer to the beginning of treatment except for a good clinical reason or through patient choice.
- for some uncommon cancers like acute leukaemia, children's cancers and testicular cancer, this is what most patients already experience.
- for other cancers this will take time to achieve, so we will set milestones along the way:
- by 2005 there will be a maximum one month wait from diagnosis to treatment for all cancers
- by 2005 there will be a maximum two month wait from urgent GP referral to treatment for all cancers.
An extra £50 million NHS investment a year by 2004 in hospices and specialist palliative care, to improve access to these services across the country. For the first time ever, NHS investment in specialist palliative care services will match that of the voluntary sector.
7. These new commitments will strengthen the fight to prevent cancer; ensure that all who need it are guaranteed fast diagnosis and treatment; and provide increased support for people living with cancer right across the country.
