Telford & Wrekin health bosses in vow over cancer death figures
Health bosses have vowed to perform better after Telford and Wrekin was named as one of the worst areas for surviving cancer.
The region fell in the bottom 10 in the country for the highest proportion of patients who do not survive a year after diagnosis, a report from Macmillan Cancer Support said.
Now Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group said it will meet with the charity to see what improvements can be made.
David Evans, chief officer at the group, said: "The findings of the report are certainly disappointing and raise concerns that the service provided for the people of Telford and Wrekin is not as good as it should be.
"We have already arranged to meet with Macmillan to review the findings of the report in depth and to discuss ways in which we might be able to learn from areas with better performance than Telford and Wrekin's.
"Telford and Wrekin CCG is already working with partners across the region to improve cancer outcomes, including Macmillan Cancer Support and Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust and we remain committed to working with colleagues to ensure that patients in the area receive the care they expect and deserve.
"The CCG recognises that raising public awareness on signs and symptoms is very important in the early detection and diagnosis and is actively working with partners in public health and providers to increase public awareness."
The charity said that just 24 per cent of patients in the best performing local health area – north east Hampshire and Farnham – die within a year. But in the worst regions almost 40 per cent die within 12 months of diagnosis.
And according to Macmillan's analysis of Office for National Statistics data in Telford and Wrekin, 36 per cent of patients die within a year of diagnosis. Marginally worse was than Telford and Wrekin was Barking and Dagenham, east London, where 38 per cent of patients die within 12 months of diagnosis. The same proportion of patients die in this time frame in Crawley, West Sussex, Newham, east London, Swale, Kent, Thanet, also in Kent, and the Vale Royal health area – which covers Winsford, Northwich and surrounding rural areas in Cheshire.
A Macmillan spokeswoman said areas with the poorest survival rates are on average failing to meet at least one key NHS waiting time targets for treatments.
The charity has estimated that if the whole country managed to match the survival rates seen in the 10 best-performing areas, 6,000 people would survive longer every year.