Cancer care improvement programme awarded £2.3m

A pioneering programme to radically improve cancer services in Greater Manchester has been boosted by £2.3m of funding.

Greater Manchester Cancer Vanguard Innovation is piloting new ways of delivering cancer services designed to save hundreds of lives.

The programme’s main focus is on improving early diagnosis of the disease and preventing people getting cancer in the first place. It also aims to raise standards in cancer services across the board so that patients benefit from the best possible care wherever they live in Greater Manchester and east Cheshire.

Vanguard Innovation is also developing a digital platform to help GPs detect cancer in patients, as well as designing more tailored and personalised aftercare services for people living with and beyond cancer.

Roger Spencer, Chief Executive of The Christie, which is a partner in Vanguard Innovation and was recently rated ‘outstanding’ by health watchdog the CQC, said: ‘This is excellent news because it will allow us to build on the rapid progress we’ve made in developing new ways of delivering services.

‘We aim to do things in highly innovative ways and create a blueprint for services that can be reproduced in other parts of the country. The cash award will help us to continue doing that.

‘While we’re doing very well in some areas of cancer services in Greater Manchester and Cheshire, there is room for improvement. We’re determined, through the innovations we’re proposing, to deliver the best service we can to all our patients.’

Richard Preece, Executive Lead for Quality, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, said: ‘The devolution programme in Greater Manchester has given us the opportunity to do things differently and in a way that genuinely meets the needs of our population.

‘Having control of our own health and social care arrangements has also helped us develop new partnerships which means we can make very best use of our resources.’

The cash award, announced by NHS England, will fund the second year of the two-year programme, which was launched in April 2016, and matches the amount awarded for the first year.

Vanguard Innovation is the innovation arm of the newly formed Greater Manchester Cancer, the cancer programme of Greater Manchester’s health and social care partnership.

Vanguard Innovation is a partnership that includes world-leading cancer centre The Christie but also comprises health professionals from cancer services across Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester was designated a ‘vanguard’ site in 2015 as part of a programme that also involves The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The Greater Manchester and London programmes are known collectively as the Cancer Vanguard.

Cancer is becoming more common and one in every two people can expect to be diagnosed with the disease, though more than half of patients live 10 years or more after diagnosis.

One-year cancer survival rates in Greater Manchester have dramatically improved in recent years – more than in comparable cities – and the region’s figures for diagnosing and treating patients within two months of referral are better than the national average.

However, too many patients are diagnosed late with cancer and in some areas the region lags behind the highest European standards.