Reform will harm cancer patients, charities say

London: Cancer patients could die earlier because the government's National Health Service (NHS) shakeup will lead to the disbandment of teams of experts who advise doctors and hospitals on how to improve care, cancer charities are warning.

Key staff in some of the 28 NHS cancer networks across England have already been told their jobs are at risk because the coalition's reorganisation of the health service will abolish in 2013 the primary care trusts (PCTs) which provide much of their funding and most of their personnel.

The networks are widely admired for helping GPs know which NHS units will give their patients with cancer the best treatment and working with hospital cancer teams to ensure they offer the growing number of sufferers with the disease the best drugs and most effective forms of surgery.

Cancer charities claim it is "absolute madness" for Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, to refuse to guarantee the future of the networks once his controversial switch to GPs commissioning health services in England starts in April 2013.

‘Reckless decisions'

Lansley is accused of reckless decision-making a day after launching a government plan to drive up standards of care, improve cancer survivors' quality of life and reduce the 10,000 deaths a year caused by late diagnosis of the disease.

"Cancer treatment will get worse and could get much worse, and more patients could die earlier, or have a worse experience of cancer treatment unless the expertise that networks have is retained," said Mike Hobday of Macmillan Cancer Support. "There's a huge danger in losing this expertise. The danger is that cancer treatments could get worse or even collapse in some parts of the country, or that more people could die, or that patients could receive less effective treatments.

"The government is taking a great risk by not protecting a key part of the NHS that helps the several hundred thousand people a year who are diagnosed with cancer."

The 28 cancer networks advise PCTs and hospital cancer teams. If a hospital team is found to be under-performing in cancer care network officials go in and use their expertise to help them improve.

Lansley has made clear that he does not want to force the new GP consortiums that will replace PCTs in 2013 to continue using the networks. His insistence that the NHS slashes its management costs by 45 per cent has forced PCTs to start cutting back.

Last month several major cancer charities warned the Department of Health that they were worried that not maintaining the networks beyond 2013 would damage patient care. However, Wednesday's updated cancer reform strategy made clear that the department had rejected their concerns.

New-style

It said that "commissioners and providers are currently supported by cancer networks", but added that "it is very likely that GP consortia will wish to purchase support from a new style of cancer network".

The new plan also suggests that the networks could become social enterprises who were paid for their advice by GP consortiums to help replace the funding they currently receive from PCTs and the Department of Health through the NHS's 10 strategic health authorities.

Mia Rosenblatt of the Cancer Campaigning Group, an alliance of 40 cancer charities, said: "We are extremely concerned about the future of cancer networks and concerned that this will have a negative impact on patient care."

The shadow health minister, Emily Thornberry, said: "It's reckless, at a time when they are reorganising the NHS, that these expert organisations will be allowed to wither on the vine. The secretary of state isn't listening to the people who know. These networks are experts in cancer. They push up standards and help to prolong lives and save lives by assisting the commissioning of quality, effective cancer care."