Mark Lawler, Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics at Queen’s University Belfast, shared on LinkedIn:
“Timely article by Priya Venkatesan in the latest issue of Lancet Oncology (see below)
As cancer professionals, as we wait for Parliament to consider legislation that will reshape how the NHS is governed, there could hardly be a more important question to be answered: who will be accountable when cancer standards are not met?
England now has a National Cancer Plan, but the target for patients to start treatment within 62 days has not been met since 2015. Without investment and urgent action, it will remain out of reach. In cancer care, these targets are not aspirations nor are they, as senior ministers have confirmed, ‘something stretching to work towards’. They are clinical matters of life and death and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Attempts by MPs to put stronger accountability into the Health Bill have (disappointingly) so far not succeeded. The Government calls its National Cancer Board independent, yet it is co-chaired by a senior NHS and departmental official. Eighteen of its 28 members hold roles within NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care, and it reports publicly only once a year. Surely it is obvious – the NHS should not mark its own homework.
The Government should either accept amendments to legislation strengthening accountability or ensure proper independent clinical scrutiny on the board.”
Other articles about Mark Lawler on OncoDaily.