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<p><em>Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer</em>, published on 12 January 2011,
backed by over £750 million, committed over £450 million over the four years up to
2014-15 to achieve earlier diagnosis of cancer, including supporting direct general
practitioner (GP) access to key diagnostic tests such as non-obstetric ultrasound
to support the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. In 2012, the Department published ‘Direct
access to diagnostic tests for cancer: best practice referral pathways for general
practitioners’. The guide aims to raise awareness of the symptoms that require urgent
referral to specialists and sets out where a direct referral for tests may benefit
patients and lead to a faster diagnosis.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Diagnostic
Imaging Dataset collected by NHS England showed that in August 2014, GPs requested
almost a quarter of all tests that may have been used to diagnose or discount cancer,
under direct access arrangements. Of these, the test with the highest proportion of
GP referral was ultrasounds that may have been used to diagnose ovarian cancer (45%
of which were requested by GPs).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The earlier diagnosis
money also included some central funding for Be Clear on Cancer (BCOC) campaigns,
which aim to raise awareness of the symptoms of cancer and get symptomatic patients
to present earlier. Public Health England ran a regional ovarian pilot campaign which
ran from 10 February to 16 March 2014 in the North West of England Television region.
The campaign was aimed at women over 50, the age group most at risk of developing
ovarian cancer, and their friends and family to raise awareness of bloating as a symptom
of ovarian cancer and to encourage women with this symptom to visit their GP. Full
evaluation results are awaited.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The National Institute
for health and Care Excellence’s most recent guidelines recommend offering genetic
testing to people with a 10% risk of carrying a BRCA mutation, which is lower than
the 20% risk previously recommended. The draft policy proposal for BRCA testing is
amongst those awaiting consultation by NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory
Group. This will take place following the 90-day public consultation on the decision-making
framework which NHS England will use to make decisions on specialised services proposals,
which is now live.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Following this consultation period,
the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group will review the proposal and make a recommendation
to the NHS England Specialised Services Committee, who will make a final decision.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>On 11 January NHS England announced a new independent cancer
taskforce to develop a five-year action plan for cancer services to improve survival
rates and save thousands of lives.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The taskforce has
been set up to produce a new national cancer strategy for the next five years to 2020,
building on NHS England’s vision for improving cancer outcomes set out in the NHS
Five Year Forward View. The taskforce will be set up in partnership with the cancer
community and other health system leaders, and will be chaired by Dr Harpal Kumar,
Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK. The new strategy will cover prevention, early
and faster diagnosis, better treatment and care for all, recovery, reablement and
living with and beyond cancer. The strategy will also cover research and innovation,
end-of-life care, data and metrics, and workforce. The taskforce will produce a statement
of intent by March 2015, and will aim to publish the new strategy in the summer.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>NHS England also launched a major early-diagnosis programme,
working jointly with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support to test new approaches
to identifying cancer more quickly. These include offering patients the option to
self-refer for diagnostic tests, lowering the threshold for GP referrals, and setting
up multi-disciplinary diagnostic centres, so that patients can have several tests
done at the same place on the same day. NHS England’s aim is to evaluate these innovative
initiatives across more than 60 centres around England, in order to collect evidence
on approaches that could be implemented from 2016-17.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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