Issue - meetings

Matthew Cole, Director of Public Health, LBBD, introduced the presentation on the delivery of world class cancer outcomes ambition and explained how it would be essential to change how things were done to improve outcomes for patients. 

The CCG advised that six strategic priorities had to be delivered over the next five years, which would put a focus on prevention, earlier diagnosis, patient experience and support for people with and after cancer through investment and commissioning, the details of which were set out in section 3 of the report.

London Cancer and the NHS England New Models of Care Cancer Vanguard, had been set up in 2011 to serve 3.2million people across the north east and central London and Essex and its aim was to improve outcomes by tackling late diagnosis, variation in practice, fragmented care pathways and experience of people with cancer.  The Board’s attention was drawn to the changes and successes that had emanated from those initiatives. 

The Board discussed:

·  The need to reduce variation in outcomes across the geographical area and cancer conditions and noted that four task and finish groups had been set up to develop and deliver a work plan.

·  The need to improve people’s knowledge around signs and symptoms.

·  The cancers that where occurring in higher rates locally.

·  The significant negative effect that smoking was having on cancer rates locally and action that might be taken to reduce smoking, including 

-  Partners using their own building / organisations estates and practices to make smoking less acceptable.

-  Looking at providing smoking cessation services in a radical new way.

-  Targeting young smokers in a different way and by empowering them to make healthy lifestyle choices.

·  The potential to coordinate health messages /campaigns, which issues should be targeted jointly and if there needed to be prioritisation to stop information overload.

·  The work that had been undertaken in Southcentral Foundation Nuka system of Care (Alaska USA) and by Camden CCG and how the lessons learned there could be of use locally.

·  Accepted that areas with similar demographics may need to be targeted differently’

·  Partners might want to jointly consider community needs and look at the potential to operate direct outreach services to difficult to target groups.

·  Improved survivorship rates could result in long-term health / physical conditions, which would require an ‘attitude and operational shift’ to reflect this, especially at GP level.

·  How this could be undertaken by supporting radical change through funding and commissioning initiatives.

The Board:

(i)  Noted the problem of LBBD residents presenting themselves at a late stage of symptoms for medical assessment, either at their GP’s or through other medical routes, and how this late presentation affected the treatment available and the subsequent survival rates;

(ii)  Noted that GP’s needed training in the tools available that would improve their identification of signs of cancer;

(ii)  Noted the need to improve residents’ knowledge of signs and symptoms that should be checked by a medical professional and the need to increase residents’  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60