Breakout session 3: Ensuring better treatments and reducing cancer equalities

Patients must be able to access high quality treatments, including drugs, radiotherapy, and surgery to ensure that we build on our success of improving cancer outcomes. It is vital that patients are able to access better treatments, but this is made difficult because of the significant inequalities across the country in access to treatments and outcomes because of deprivation, race, age, gender, disability, etc. This session explored how patients can access better treatments, and how the National Cancer Equalities Initiative is tackling inequalities in cancer.

Speakers

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  Ann Fox 
  Joanne Rule, Co-Chair, National Cancer Equalities Initiative
• Ann Fox, Nurse Director, North of England Cancer Network

Presentations

Download Joanne Rule's presentation [Powerpoint, 928kb]|
Download Ann Fox's presentation [Powerpoint, 457kb]|

Issues raised

• Discrepancies between PCTs in funding decisions for drugs. Ann Fox spoke about the development of the North of England Cancer Drug Approval Group, which brings together PCTs in the region so that clinical and commissioning decisions are made together, to ensure that there is consistency in the area.
  
• Issues around medical ethics and how much to spend on each patient bring up questions around equalities. There was some discussion on the QALY and how NICE makes decisions on funding, particularly in the case of rarer cancers.
  
• In looking where to site ambulatory/satellite centres, we need to take account of equality issues.
  
• It is important that different groups in society are able to access information about cancer.

Breakout session four: Living with or beyond cancer >|