New 'One Stop Shops' For Cancer To Speed Up Diagnosis And Save Lives
Leeds and Airedale are among ten hospital centres involved in a national pilot scheme designed to speed up cancer diagnosis and make more cancers curable.
Rapid diagnostic and assessment centres are being piloted in ten areas as part of NHS England’s drive to catch cancer early and speed up diagnosis for people who present with symptoms indicative of cancer.
In addition to the two national pilots (Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Airedale Foundation NHS Trust), West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance is also supporting the roll-out of the ‘one stop shop’ approach across other hospital sites in the region with national transformation funding secured last year.
A ‘Communities of Practice’ network has been established to share the learning from the pilot sites, and to support centres in developing their own similar projects, tailored to meet the needs of their own local communities.
The ten pilot sites make up the ACE 2 (Accelerate, Co-ordinate and Evaluate) Early Diagnosis Programme, a joint initiative by NHS England, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan, and supported by Cancer Alliances around the country.
People with vague, non-specific symptoms, such as unexplained weight loss, appetite loss or abdominal pain are often referred multiple times for different tests for different cancers, but these new centres will help end this cycle.
Some patients will receive a definitive diagnosis or all clear on the same day, while others will need to undergo further assessment, but can generally expect a diagnosis within two weeks of their first appointment.
Professor Sean Duffy, Clinical Lead for the WYH Alliance, said: “Making more cancers curable, with more diagnosed at stages 1 and 2, is a key ambition for our Cancer Alliance. We have also pledged to listen and learn from the experiences of individuals affected by cancer.
“Our patients have told us that we need to tackle the ‘ping pong’ that is so often associated with patients who have vague but worrying symptoms, and who are referred in and out of services on the journey to their final diagnosis.
“This one-stop approach means those who do have cancer receive their diagnosis quickly and can be referred on speedily to the appropriate specialists. Those who don’t have cancer can receive the treatment appropriate to their condition, as well as receiving advice about screening and prevention, where appropriate.
Other national pilots are running at North Middlesex University Hospital; University College London Hospital; Southend University Hospital; Queens Hospital; Royal Free Hospital; University Hospital South Manchester; Royal Oldham Hospital and the Churchill Hospital.
These new centres are part of NHS’s plan to meet the new faster diagnosis standard, where patients with suspected cancer should receive a diagnosis or the all clear within 28-days.
For more information about how WYH Cancer Alliance is supporting this work and the Communities of Practice network, email Angharad Truelove, angharad.truelove@wakefieldccg.nhs.uk
Read more about how Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support are supporting the ACE programme nationally:
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/diagnosis/ace-programme
https://www.macmillan.org.uk/about-us/health-professionals/programmes-and-services/ace-programme
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