Dudley Strategy for Tackling Health Inequalities 2010-15

As more people than ever are surviving after a diagnosis of cancer and the numberdiagnosed with the illness is rising it is estimated that one in ten people over the ageof 65 are living with a diagnosis of cancer. There is therefore much to do to plan andorganise services to help and support cancer survivors.Extended age limits for screening – breast cancer to 73 and bowel cancer to 75 togain benefits and achieve uptake rates need to ensure communication andpromotion to target groups.The Health Inequalities National Support Team found that in Dudley there was:• Good primary care participation in national audit of primary care of newlydiagnosed cancer.• Excellent public/user engagement in planning services e.g. head and neck.• A dedicated cancer patient information lead in the cancer network.• A strong community focus, including education and awareness raising byclinical nurse specialists.• Nationally recognised work on promoting HPV vaccination by the HPVvaccination co-ordinator.• A commendable level of psychological support for cancer sufferers andcharitable cancer drop in centre support for patients eg. „Light House‟.• An innovative cancer health improvement coordinator post in the PCT, whoutilises social marketing and community engagement to increase awarenessof cancer and uptake of cancer screening, eg. „Blossoms and Mangos‟- aseries of plays aimed at minority groups to address barriers to screeninguptake.How do we get there?The aim is three-pronged; to reduce the number of people who develop cancerthrough effective prevention messages, to reduce cancer deaths through earlierdiagnosis and optimum treatment and reduce inequalities through effective socialmarketing techniques.Whilst a similar proportion of people in Dudley as elsewhere have cancer morepeople die from the condition. The largest cause is the number of people in deprivedareas developing lung cancer (particularly men) and the most effective intervention isto reduce smoking rates in these areas.Promote healthy behaviours, including nutrition and physical activity, to reduceobesity.To improve health outcomes for people with cancer there is a need to encourageearlier presentation and detection and increased access to evidence basedtreatments.Analyse the results of the 2010 National Cancer Patient Experience survey which willprovide a comprehensive view of experience by age, gender, deprivation andethnicity.133