Parts of east London compare poorly with the rest of England in helping to prevent, and treat cancer. It’s a situation we need to change. We want to cut waiting times for appointments and ensure patients from all backgrounds have access to timely, high quality modern treatments. Working with some of the best expertise there is, we want people to live well after treatment and increase their chance of survival.
Our aims
- Reduce waiting times for appointments from diagnosis to treatment
- Diagnose and treat any cancer quickly, with better education and information for the public
- Improve care and outcomes for local people
East London has higher than-average rates of smoking and obesity and fewer people take part in any form of physical activity or exercise.
We are working to improve the information on screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer and other forms of the disease for patients. This includes better signposting on when and where you can be screened, and what you can do yourself to check for symptoms.
We want to ensure local people who don’t have regular health checks, or need a bit more help to access information and services, get the advice and support they need.
Our priorities
Our current areas of focus are cancer services at an east London level that have been developed to follow the national cancer priorities and the NHS Long Term plan.
We will continue to focus on:
- improving one-year survival for patients
- support people living with cancer as a long-term condition
- improving how we manage cancer waiting times
We have also identified priorities that reflect the needs of local issues and people:
- Work with our partners across north east London to create a hub to help diagnose cancer early.
- Develop a specialist clinic at Queen’s and Royal London Hospitals, to reduce the number of patients being treated in A&E departments.
- Support Barking, Havering and Redbridge University NHS Trust to jointly develop a plan to tackle the need to improve reconstruction surgery following mastectomy.
- Use a range of approaches to increase the awareness and uptake of screening programmes by local people.