The ambition set by NHS England is that 75% of cancers should be diagnosed in stages 1&2 by 2028. Currently, around 50% of cancers are diagnosed early.
The early diagnosis programme in south east London aims to increase the number of patients diagnosed with cancer at an earlier stage, a key priority in NHS England’s Long Term Plan by working with system partners across South East London to implement screening and early diagnosis initiatives and interventions.
The Early Diagnosis Programme also runs an extensive education programme for primary care and previous recordings of educational webinars and support documents can be found under the training and development section of the website.
If you would like to find out further information about the screening and early diagnosis initiatives and interventions planned for this year, please contact the Early Diagnosis Lead in the Cancer Alliance via our contact form.
We are working with a number of partners across South East London to improve uptake in cancer screening programmes and to reduce inequalities across the three screening programmes:
- Bowel
- Breast
- Cervical
We are carrying out a number of projects to support recovery and increase uptake in the screening programmes. If you would like to know what you can do in your local practice or area, then please contact us.
The Cancer Alliance is working with primary care cancer leads across South East London to ensure that Primary Care Networks (PCNS) and GPs within these are kept up to date with changes and updates to pathways.
Although SEL early diagnosis performance for prostate cancer is greater then the national average (60% vs 53%), we have slightly poorer performance then the London average (63%) and are short of the national target of 75%. (Source: 2022 NHS digital)
We had an initial pilot in South East London to test a case finding initiative. This involved searching for men at a higher risk of having prostate cancer and offering them the Prostate Cancer UK Risk Checker using a text message. This was in line with the PCN DES and local recommendations from the South East London Urology Tumour Group. The outcome of the evaluation has been an agreement that the materials and searches should now be made available to all PCNs in South East London to continue this work.
However, it is important to note that work aims to target men at particularly high risk of Prostate Cancer and NOT ALL men over the age of 50. Please follow the guidance document that identifies the cohorts to be contacted.
The South East Cancer Alliance recommends that PCNs focus on men who are most at risk (target cohort):
• those with a family history of prostate cancer aged over 45
• black men aged over 45
The links to the documents to support PCNs and practices to carry out the intervention can be found here.
The searches which are used to monitor impact (and therefore completing any DES fulfilment template) can also be downloaded on the following links, ‘text sent and PSA done’ and ‘text sent and Urgent Suspected Cancer referral made.’
SELCA have worked with Prostate Cancer UK to develop a specific URL for their risk checker for practices in SEL prostatecanceruk.org/gp-risk-se-london which should be included in all AccuRx texts, in order for patients to request a PSA test without having to book an appointment,
Please Note:
There are searches for men at high risk of Prostate Cancer in EMIS as part of Ardens that could be used in conjunction with this. However, they include men over >70 years of age. We would therefore recommend that the list of patients generated by any search is reviewed by a clinician prior to texts being sent to ensure only suitable patients are contacted. It would not usually be recommended to offer a PSA test to a man with a life expectancy with less than 10 years.
If you’d like to find out further information about the screening and early diagnosis work programme, then please contact us.