MP: A focus on outcomes will increase survival rates
During Health Questions in the House of Commons this morning, John Baron MP asked the Secretary of State for Health, Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, about the implementation of Clause Five of the Health & Care Act 2022, which was John’s amendment to the legislation.
John said,
“What assurance can the Secretary of State give that the letter and the spirit of Clause Five of the Health & Care Act 2022 will be embraced to encourage the NHS to improve early diagnosis and therefore cancer survival rates by focusing on outcome measures, such as the one-year survival rate, so that we can finally start catching up with international averages when it comes to survival?
The Secretary of State paid tribute to John’s campaigning on cancer, and said that the new NHS Mandate will reflect this approach.
John said afterwards,
“NHS cancer treatment is currently held back by lots of process targets, which are bureaucratic and unlike outcome measures do not measure the success or effectiveness of treatment. My amendment to the Health & Care Act, which was passed with wide cross-party support, attempts to address this by encouraging the NHS to focus on outcome measures, and I will continue to follow how it is being implemented.”
