Cancer Reform Strategy - NHS Cancer Screening Programmes

105Chapter 8:Using information to improve quality and choiceChapter Summary●●●●●●Better information on cancer services and outcomes will enhance patient choice, drive upservice quality and underpin stronger commissioning;A new national survey tool to measure public awareness of risk factors and symptoms ofcancer is in development. This will be used for national surveys and is likely also to be usefulat a local level;Regular surveys of the experiences of cancer patients will be initiated, to monitor progress inthis important area;Collection of defined datasets on all cancer patients will be mandated through the nationalmodel contract. PCTs will be responsible for ensuring that this information is collected byMDTs and sent to cancer registries;A new National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) is being established to bring togetherrelevant stakeholders and to act as a repository of cancer data; andThe NCRI partners will help fund research on the population level data collated by the NCIN.Introduction8.1 Collecting and using improved informationon different aspects of cancer services is centralto delivering this strategy. Virtually all theimprovements we expect to see over the nextfive years will rely on the availability of highquality, usable and relevant information.Provision of high quality information will:●●●●Empower patients in making importantdecisions about their care;Strengthen commissioning, as highlighted bythe world class commissioning competencies;Enable providers to identify areas where theycan make improvements;Facilitate greater understanding ofinequalities in cancer; and●Encourage informed national and localscrutiny of performance.8.2 Although there have been improvementsin the information collected on cancer services,it remains patchy and the data which areavailable have not always been used to improveservices, largely because they have notpreviously been brought together in a readilyusable form. Addressing this is now a keypriority. We particularly need to collect anduse high quality data on:●●Awareness of and attitudes to cancer riskfactors and symptoms among differentgroups within society;Patients’ experience of treatment and care;and