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<p>Reducing inequalities and improving breast cancer outcomes for ethnic minority
women is a priority for the Government. To support this work, NHS England has commissioned
six new cancer clinical audits, which will provide timely evidence for cancer service
providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency
of access to treatments, and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatments and
outcomes for patients, including for breast cancer. The Royal College of Surgeons
began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first outcomes are expected in September
2024.</p><p>NHS England is also leading a programme of work to tackle healthcare inequalities
centred around five clear priorities, which are set out in the operational planning
guidance for the health system. The Core20PLUS5 approach proactively targets groups
that are less likely to engage with services in the most deprived quintile of the
population, along with ethnic minority communities and inclusion health groups, across
five clinical areas which includes early cancer diagnosis, specifically screening
and early referral.</p><p>The issue of improving equality monitoring, by reference
to ethnicity and the other eight protected characteristics, is being considered at
a national level under the programme called the Unified Information Standard for Protected
Characteristics (UISPC). Evaluating the use of the 2021 ethnicity census categories
is part of this programme. The UISPC Publication Steering Group is reporting to NHS
England and the Department this year, which will inform a view on the next steps,
including any plans for publication and consultation, and an implementation timetable.
Preparatory work has been undertaken by NHS England that would facilitate the introduction
of the 2021 ethnicity codes, should a decision be made to adopt the 2021 ethnicity
census codes, or to implement an alternative approach to ethnicity, if recommended.</p><p>NHS
England’s operational planning guidance recognises the importance of improving the
quality of data for patient characteristics. This is one of the five strategic priorities
in their drive to reduce healthcare inequalities, as improved data quality will help
to reveal health inequalities and inform action to address them. NHS England has therefore
asked systems to continue to improve the collection and recording of ethnicity data
across primary care, outpatients, accident and emergency, mental health, community
services, and specialised commissioning.</p><p>NHS England’s National Disease Registration
Service (NDRS) collects ethnicity data for all cancer patients through a variety of
routine, national data feeds, including the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset,
Hospital Episode Statistics data, and Patient Administration System data. The NDRS
publishes key performance indicator data on the national registration statistics for
England. The latest published indicator data, for invasive cancer cases excluding
non-melanoma skin cancers, diagnosed in 2020, shows that ethnicity data is complete
for 94.9% of cases.</p>
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