Cancer Reform Strategy - First Annual Report - Merseyside ...

CHAPTER 4: ENSURINg BETTER TREATMENT254.12 Progress on implementation can bemonitored through inspection of HospitalEpisodes Statistics. For example, progress oncentralising urological cancer services is shownin box 8. It is important to note that the mostrecent national figures available are for 2006/07and considerable further progress has beenmade since then.4.13 Specialist teams for head and neckcancers which treat more than 100 newpatients each year with improved communitysupport services are due to be in place by theend of December 2008. Four Cancer Networkshave implemented their plans ahead of thedeadline and a further 19 have confirmed thatthey expect to be compliant by the due date.Work will continue to reduce the risk with theremaining plans.4.14 Commitment was given in the CRS forfull implementation of the National Institute forHealth and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidanceon supportive and palliative care (SPC) foradults with cancer. The intention had been forthis guidance to be fully implemented acrossthe country by December 2007. However,this guidance is particularly complex andwide ranging and the initial timetable forimplementation has overlapped with thedevelopment of other national strategy areas,such as end of life care and the Department ofHealth’s (DH) Common Assessment Framework,which needed to be taken into account asCancer Networks took forward implementationof the SPC guidance. It was confirmed in theCRS that the deadline would be extended by12 months to December 2008. Networks willbe reporting on partial compliance by this date,with full implementation by December 2009.4.15 For the remaining Iogs, NCAT has beenworking closely with Specialised Commissioninggroups (SCgs) across the country and goodprogress has been made in developing servicesfor penile and testicular cancers that servepopulations of four and two million respectively.There has been significant progress made inconsolidating pancreatic surgery into fewercentres, but four SHAs do not yet have agreedplans. For skin cancer, most Cancer Networksnow have agreed plans. For sarcoma, eight outof ten SHAs have plans in place to consolidateservices, and there is confidence that these willall be fully implemented by December 2010.4.16 Principal Treatment Centres for children’scancers have now been approved by all SCgsexcept one where there is a review process underway. It is expected that services for young people(aged 16-24) will be established in the samecities. guidance has been developed for SCgsand Cancer Networks to ensure that all youngpeople aged 16-19 years benefit from beingreferred for treatment in a designated PrincipalTreatment Centre for young people, and that allyoung people aged 16-24 years inclusive shouldbe notified to a teenage and young adult multidisciplinaryteam (MDT), to be based at thesePrincipal Treatment Centres.4.17 The initial mapping of brain and centralnervous system services has been completed.However, issues have been identified by CancerNetworks that require further clarification withthe Iog development group, after which furtheradvice will be issued to the service.Laparoscopic colorectal surgery4.18 The CRS said that, in order to increase theuse of laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer,a pilot training programme would be establishedwhich would be fully evaluated for potentialnational rollout.4.19 A network of ten centres – including atotal of 16 hospitals – has been established totake this forward, with support from the relevantprofessional bodies. A clinical lead has beenappointed and a coordinating centre has beenset up to provide project support and businessmanagement to all training centres. ImperialCollege london are developing an educationalplatform to support the training that includescoordination of training methods, provision ofintegrated education material and competencebasedassessment against agreed criteria.4.20 To date 30 surgeons have been recruitedon to the programme and a further 30 haveexpressed interest. The programme is beingextended to include the potential for cadaverictraining prior to attending the main training.