Swansea Bay Health Board Develops Cancer Improvement Programme

A WIDE-RANGING plan to speed up cancer diagnosis and treatment and make sure everyone in Swansea Bay can benefit equally is being developed.
Swansea Bay University Health Board is subject to the second highest level of Welsh Government oversight in a bid to improve diagnosis and treatment times.
There are several reasons it’s missing cancer targets, including diagnostic delays. It’s not the only health board in this position and work is being done to make things better, but its leaders want more oversight, accountability and a wider focus on the disease, including prevention work.
With this in mind the board has approved the creation of a cancer improvement programme.
The clinically-led programme’s aims are fivefold:
⦁ Better cancer outcomes for people in Swansea Bay
⦁ Timely access to diagnosis and treatment
⦁ Reduce unwarranted variation and improve equitable access to high-quality cancer care and clinical research
⦁ Sustainable cancer services able to meet future demand
⦁ Improved assurance through coordinated governance.
A report before health board members said demand for cancer services continued to grow and patients were often living longer with increasingly complex treatment needs.
It added: “The evidence demonstrates that deprivation remains one of the strongest determinants of cancer outcomes, influencing both the likelihood of developing cancer and the opportunity to achieve good outcomes following diagnosis.”
It said people in the most deprived areas in the region, which covers Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, were less likely to take up bowel screening and survive cancer in general for five years compared to those in the least deprived areas.
Speaking at a board meeting last Thursday executive medical director Dr Raj Krishnan said the 5-10-year cancer improvement programme would act as a bridge between immediate recovery work and what he called long-term transformation.
In Wales the target is that 75% of cancer patients should start treatment within 62 days of first being suspected of having the disease, and Swansea Bay University Health Board continues to lag behind.
Draft figures for April and May this year were 48% and 54% respectively although they could be revised upwards when final data is in, as has happened before. Swansea Bay ranks fifth out of six in Wales on this metric, based on the 12 months up to May, although no health board is higher than 61%.
There is a backlog in diagnosis, appointments and treatment due to delays in cellular pathology testing and diagnostics, workforce issues and constraints in theatre capacity among other things.
Pathology delays are a big contributor, according to a health board cancer report. “The service currently holds a substantial backlog of unreported samples alongside material workforce capacity gaps,” it said.
A pathology recovery plan including outsourcing diagnostics and recruitment has been developed, while robotic surgery is set to be expanded and theatre timetables re-jigged. The health board is committed to complying with the 75% target by next March.
Health board chief executive Abigail Harris said discussions were needed with neighbouring Hywel Dda University Health Board because the South West Wales Cancer Care Centre at Swansea’s Singleton Hospital was used by it.
Chairwoman Jan Williams said financial implications hadn’t really been identified. “Yet we know that if we are going to resource the South West Wales Cancer Care Centre properly, fully and sustainably the current resource envelope we have is insufficient, and that we will need to be talking very seriously with our neighbouring health board about actually sharing the financial risk and putting additional resources in,” she said.
Ms Harris said she felt a “proper costed plan” was needed. She also said it was also important that patients had equal access to cancer trials wherever they lived.
The Welsh Government is developing a 10-year cancer strategy which is due to be published next February. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

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By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​