Cancer Reform Strategy - NHS Cancer Screening Programmes

10 CANCER REFORM STRATEGYWe will also expand the provision ofcommunications skills training for healthcareprofessionals.26. Commissioners will want to work withproviders to ensure they have robust systems inplace to ensure that patients experience goodcontinuity of care. They should give particularconsideration to the role of Clinical NurseSpecialists, who play a critical role in cancer care.27. Cancer patients and their families and carersmay need psychological support. Commissionersshould work collaboratively to ensure that goodpsychological support services are availablethroughout the cancer journey.28. We also want to improve the access patientshave to information on the financial supportthat may be available to them. Information onfinancial benefits will be made available on theforthcoming national information pathwaysfrom January 2008.29. As early diagnosis and treatment improves,more people are surviving cancer. A newNational Cancer Survivorship Initiative, inpartnership with cancer charities, clinicians andpatients, will consider a range of approaches toimproving the services and support available forcancer survivors.Reducing cancer inequalities30. There are major inequalities in cancerincidence, access to services and outcomes,according to deprivation, race, age, gender,disability, religion and sexual orientation. Thisstrategy therefore places a high priority onensuring that action is taken to reduce theseinequalities.31. The government will begin a NationalCancer Equality Initiative, bringing together keystakeholders from the professions, voluntarysector, academia and equality groups to developresearch proposals on cancer inequalities, testinterventions and advise on the development ofwider policy. The National Cancer EqualityInitiative will focus initially on optimising datacollection to enhance our understanding of theinequalities that exist, promoting research to fillgaps in the evidence and spreading goodpractice.Delivering care in the appropriate setting32. New models of care can bring considerableadvantages to patients. This strategy sets out arange of ways in which service models forcancer could be improved, based on two keyprinciples: first that care should be deliveredlocally wherever possible to maximise patientconvenience; and second that services should becentralised where necessary to improveoutcomes.33. In all cases, care must be delivered byproviders which conform to national standardssuch as the Improving Outcomes Guidance andwhich are fully integrated with other serviceswithin the cancer network.34. GPs and primary care professionals musthave quick and easy access to relevantdiagnostic tests, both to exclude cancer inpatients with a low chance of having cancer andto diagnose cancer quickly in patients with ahigh chance of having cancer.35. Regarding inpatient care for cancer, thereare significant opportunities to shift someservices from inpatient to ambulatory care.Evidence from successful pilots and internationalexperience confirms that this shift improvespatient experience and outcomes and increasesthe efficiency of services. The Cancer ServicesCollaborative Improvement Partnership and theCancer Action Team are developing aprogramme of work on inpatient managementto support local implementation of these newservice models.Drivers for deliveryUsing information to improve qualityand choice36. Collecting and using improved informationon different aspects of cancer services andoutcomes is central to delivering this strategy.Better information will enhance quality, informcommissioning and promote choice.37. National surveys will be developed to collectinformation on awareness of and attitudes to