Adam Morris: Beating back one of our biggest killers

Published on Thursday 19 February 2009 08:47

BEING diagnosed with cancer is devastating enough, but in the past the agony has all too often been increased by delays in providing potentially life-saving treatment.

In order to boost survival rates the Government set new targets for health boards for reducing the period between diagnosis and treatment. There has been none more successful than NHS Lothian in narrowing this gap – to the extent that patients are now offered treatment sooner than anywhere else on the Scottish mainland.

If NHS Lothian and the Scottish Government get their way, within two years no-one will be waiting for more than a month between receiving the dreaded news to beginning treatment.

New figures show the board has improved treatment times by ten per cent in the past year alone – double the national rate.

Only in the tiny health board area of Shetland is there a better chance of receiving treatment within the current Holyrood target of 62 days. But only four people in Shetland were diagnosed, whereas 364 cases were confirmed in the Lothians in the same three-month period between July and September.

Only seven of those in the Lothians didn't get through the process in 62 days. Health boards in Dumfries and Galloway and Grampian are struggling to get people through in that time.

Speaking after the publication of the figures which show NHS Lothian gets through 98.1 per cent of patients in the target time (Glasgow gets 93 per cent through and Tayside 95 per cent), medical director Dr Charles Swainson said: "This is a fantastic achievement and the multi-disciplinary team at our regional cancer centre should be congratulated for their hard work."

Millions of pounds of Holyrood cash has been thrown at reducing waiting times, but a number of initiatives have taken place to make a real difference in the Lothians.

Scanning technology has improved vastly of late, and with NHS Lothian working closely with Edinburgh University this provides huge benefits of which other health boards don't have the immediate advantage.

It now takes less time for someone to be scanned, and with the planned implementation of the 4 million Aquilion One scanner later this year that process will only hasten.

On the ground, seven senior nurses were brought in to speed up the turnover of patients, while numbers in administrative staff were also boosted. Three new doctors have also been specifically targeted of late and the views of nurses have been taken on as part of a consultation to see how to cut out unnecessary red tape and tasks.

In 2007, NHS Lothian invested 5m in reducing waiting lists of all kinds. This included the introduction of a mobile operating theatre to St John's, an initiative that is being proposed for the ERI.

That cash was also used to buy space at private hospitals for procedures.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "It is very welcome to see that the majority of patients diagnosed with cancer, who were urgently referred, are rightly starting their treatment within two months.

"The target needs to be met consistently, in full, across Scotland. Ensuring the majority of cancer patients are treated within 62 days of referral is crucial to speeding up the time taken in delivering care."

Every breast cancer patient was treated within 62 days, and similar 100 per cent records were achieved in lymphoma, ovarian and urological cancers.

The worst cancers in Lothian for waiting times were upper gastrointestinal cancers and melanoma – but even then there were only two patients in each who missed the two-month standard.

And only one patient missed out in colorectal, head and neck and lung cancer in the three-month time period.

Richard Davidson, director of policy and public affairs at Cancer Research UK, said: "Waiting for cancer treatment to start is very distressing and patients should begin treatment as soon as possible.

"It's encouraging to see that many boards, including Lothian, have met their targets and that there has been a ten per cent increase since the beginning of 2007. But there is a wide variation in performance and we would like to see greater consistency across all boards and for all cancers.

"While we fully support the Scottish Government's pledge to improve cancer services across the country, there is still work to be done if these goals are to be met."