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Cancer: Diagnosis

Volume 497: debated on Wednesday 14 October 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many additional (a) staff, (b) diagnostic centres and (c) diagnostics machines he estimates will be required to implement his proposals to provide patients with access to cancer diagnostics within one week of concerns being raised. (292540)

On 29 September, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced plans to offer all patients in England access to tests which can confirm or exclude cancer within one week.

Remarkable progress has been made in reducing diagnostic waiting times to date. In April 2006 (when figures for diagnostic waiting times were first published) there were 404,200 waits over six weeks for diagnostic tests and the average time waited was six weeks. The number of waits over six weeks at the end of August 2009 was 4,000—a reduction of 98.9 per cent.—and patients can now expect to wait on average under two weeks for a diagnostic test.

Due to the record investment that this Government have already made since 1997, there are more than 42,000 extra scientific and therapeutic staff. By 2008, the number of consultants working in radiology had increased by 54 per cent. to 2,269, and the number of qualified radiographers employed in the national health service by 28 per cent. to 15,600, 13,400 of whom were working in diagnostics therefore the NHS is very well placed to deliver this commitment.

The commitment will be phased in over five years and where extra staff are required, these will be developed with the NHS and reflect service redesign and new models of delivery. The NHS already has a solid platform on which to build.

The appropriate balance between expanding existing diagnostic capacity and developing new models of delivery such as diagnostics centres will be considered in consultation with the National Quality Board and the NHS.

Initial estimates are that the extra activity required by the NHS in England over the five years of the programme equates to 155 pieces of Ultrasound equipment, 75 in Computed Tomography, 60 for Magnetic Resource Imaging, and 85 for Endoscopy , but this does not mean that the NHS will need to purchase this many new machines. Additional equipment requirements will be worked up with the NHS taking in to account new models of delivery and changes in working practices.

The proposal takes forward the commitment in the Government’s “Cancer Reform” Strategy published in 2007, a copy of which has already been placed in the Library, to improve access to diagnostics in primary care. We will be consulting widely on the implementation of these proposals, working with the NHS, key stakeholders and the professions to ensure that this commitment to patients is successfully delivered.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much he expects his proposals to provide patients with access to cancer diagnostics within one week of concerns being raised to cost (a) in each financial year for which figures are available and (b) in (i) capital and (ii) revenue costs over the period of the programme; and from which budgets the funding for the proposals will be taken. (292541)

Further work is being undertaken to finalise the costs of implementing these plans, to refine the modelling and assumptions that underlie them. This will take account of the investment made to date in improving cancer and diagnostic services and new models of delivery.

Remarkable progress has been made in reducing diagnostic waiting times to date. In April 2006 (when figures for diagnostic waiting times were first published) there were 404,200 waits over six weeks for diagnostic tests and the average time waited was six weeks. The number of waits over six weeks at the end of August 2009 was 4,000—a reduction of 98 per cent.—and patients can now expect to wait on average under two weeks for a diagnostic test.

Initial estimates are as follows:

Capital costs will be about £650 million between the periods 2011-12 and 2014-15.

Early estimates of revenue costs are in the region of £1,250 million between the periods 2011-12 and 2014-15.

Final costing requirements and profiling will be worked up over the coming months in consultation with the national health service taking into account new models of delivery and changes in working practices.

The proposal takes forward the commitment in the Government’s Cancer Reform Strategy published in 2007 to improve access to diagnostics in primary care. We will be consulting widely on the implementation of these proposals, working with the NHS, key stakeholders and the professions to ensure that this commitment to patients is successfully delivered.

The major programme of renovating and rebuilding NHS hospitals is nearing completion. As this winds down it will release the resources to switch into new diagnostic equipment.