The Department is taking steps to achieve the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which aims to ensure people with cancer or suspected cancer, including lower gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, are diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of referral. The Department is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 related backlogs in elective care, which includes plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>
To achieve the FDS target specifically, NHS England has implemented a timed pathway for lower GI cancer, by requiring faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) for patients in primary and secondary care settings on a suspected lower GI cancer pathway. FIT testing prevents patients from having unnecessary colonoscopies, freeing up capacity for these procedures and ensuring the most urgent symptomatic patients are seen more quickly. Across 2022/2023 the proportion of lower GI referrals with a related FIT test rose from 24% to 69%.<\/p>
NHS England is also implementing non symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations of non-specific symptoms, that can indicate several different cancers, including symptoms that may indicate lower GI cancers.<\/p>
In addition, at the 2021 Spending Review the Government awarded £2.3 billion to transform diagnostic services from 2022 to 2025, most of which will help increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, prioritising CDCs for cancer services. General practice teams have also been given direct access to tests like computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasounds, helping to cut waiting times and speed up the diagnosis of, or ruling out of, cancer. This funding is also being used to expand endoscopy capacity within acute settings and in CDCs.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4948", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Markham"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Markham"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2024-03-19", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2024-03-19T12:35:28.383Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2024-03-01", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Gastrointestinal Cancer: Diagnosis"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure NHS England is meeting the Faster Diagnosis Standard for lower gastrointestinal cancer referrals.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/2024", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Hunt of Kings Heath"} ], "uin" : "HL2949"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1536995", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1536995/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Work is continuing towards a draft Bill on reform of audit and corporate governance, for publication in due course.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4336", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Callanan"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Callanan"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2022-11-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2022-11-10T16:20:35.3Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "201"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2022-10-27", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Audit: Reform"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made with the draft Audit Reform Bill; what resources they have allocated to drafting the bill; and when they expect to consult stakeholders on a draft of the bill.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4719", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle"} ], "uin" : "HL2949"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1358751", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department of Health and Social Care"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1358751/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
As part of COVID-19 recovery planning, we are working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision of health and care services for disabled children. Children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) who require additional provision will receive an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan assessment. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 make clear that local authorities must complete an EHC plan assessment within twenty weeks after the request is received unless exceptional circumstances apply. The Department for Education monitors local authority performance on EHC plan assessments to establish where there are long-standing delays and provide support.<\/p>
The forthcoming Spending Review will set out the Government\u2019s spending plans for health and social care for future years. We have announced an additional £5.4 billion for the National Health Service to support the COVID-19 response over the next six months. This includes £2 billion to reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children.<\/p>
We welcome the findings of the five reports by the Disabled Children\u2019s Partnership between February and September 2021 and we are considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on disabled children and their families.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4909", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Kamall"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Kamall"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2021-10-21", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : [{"_value" : "HL2947"} , {"_value" : "HL2948"} ], "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2021-10-21T11:27:05.337Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2021-10-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Special Educational Needs"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Disabled Children\u2019s Partnership Then There Was Silence, published on 10 September, which found that nearly three quarters of disabled children had seen their progress managing their condition regress during the pandemic.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4234", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Baroness Lister of Burtersett"} ], "uin" : "HL2949"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 3, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }