Skip to main content

Cancer: Health Services

Volume 471: debated on Wednesday 30 January 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2008, Official Report, columns 997-98W, on cancer: health services, if he will break down the missed diagnoses of cancer incidents by reason, including delay, failure to diagnose and problems with tests or scans. (180838)

The breakdown of reports of patient safety incidents on the National Reporting and Learning System of England and Wales is shown in the following table.

Incident category—level 1

Incident category—level 2

October 2005 to September 2006

October 2006 to September 2007

Clinical assessment (including diagnosis, scans, tests, assessments)

Diagnosis—delay/failure to

130

169

Diagnosis—wrong

45

37

Scans/X-rays/specimens—inadequate/incomplete

33

51

Scans/X-rays/specimens—mislabelled/unlabelled

60

84

Scans/X-rays/specimens—missing

38

34

Tests—failure/delay to undertake

53

69

Documentation (including records, identification)

Scans/X-rays/specimens—mislabelled/unlabelled

20

13

Scans/X-rays/specimens—missing

6

3

Implementation of care and ongoing monitoring/review

Delay/failure in recognising complication of treatment

13

9

Tests—failure/delay to undertake

20

10

Infection control incident

Diagnosis—delay/failure to

1

2

Diagnosis—wrong

0

1

Treatment, procedure

Delay/failure in recognising complication of treatment

14

20

Total

433

502

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what public funding has been made available for extending the 31-day standard target to all cancer patients; and what the expected total cost is of such an extension. (181194)

An impact assessment was published at the same time as the new Cancer Reform Strategy (CRS) on 3 December 2007. A copy of the CRS Impact Assessment is available at

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsLegislation/DH_081004

and is also available in the Library.

A breakdown of estimated additional costs associated with the extension of the 31-day standard is detailed in the following table.

Cost of 31-day standard for all cancer treatments

Financial year

Estimate for annual costs (£ million)

2008-09

2.1

2009-10

4.3

2010-11

6.4

2011-12

6.4

2012-13

6.4

2013-14

6.4

2014-15

6.4

2015-16

6.4

2016-17

6.4

2017-18

6.4

Funding for the extension of the 31-day standard is not separately identified in allocations to the national health service. Primary care trusts are funded to meet the health care needs of their populations, which will include the provision of cancer services.