Cambridge hospital staff pleased with meeting cancer waiting times target
It's a week since the news that King Charles has been diagnosed with the disease
Hospital staff in Cambridgeshire have said cutting down on the time it takes for patients to get cancer treatment is going well.
It comes a week after Buckingham Palace announced the King has been diagnosed with the disease.
Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge says it's coping fine in meeting cancer waiting targets.
But a study from Cancer Research UK's found waiting times for treatment are amongst the worst on record.
Hannah Brown's the lead cancer nurse at Addenbrooke's:
"We're a big hospital, so it is difficult to meet these targets," she said.
"We have a lot of resources here to be able to get people through the system.
"I think we do generally perform really well here; the general rule is to try and get people diagnosed with cancer within two weeks once they've felt a suspected cancer flagged usually from their GP.
"We're in a unique position in Cambridge with the partnership with the university, so in terms of innovation and ensuring we are at the cutting edge of cancer research and diagnosis, we're up there."
UK behind other countries in tackling cancer, says report
Cancer Research UK found the UK is lagging behind nations such as Australia, Canada, Denmark and Norway when it comes to tackling the disease.
It comes alongside a backdrop of rising cancer cases, with the charity warning cases in the UK will rise by a fifth to around 506,000 by 2038/2040.
The report said some of the reasons for the UK's poor results could be due to the speed at which people are diagnosed.
The charity said a National Cancer Council in England could help bring down waits and a 10-year strategy set up for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
New cancer hospital in the pipeline
Work on building Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, one of seven in the East of England by 2030 as part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme, is taking place.
Last week Health Minister Lord Markham, who is responsible for the programme, toured the Addenbrooke’s site with staff and patients to discuss the hospital's plans ahead of the main site pre-construction works starting this summer.
An outline business case for the hospital was approved last summer for the new hospital, which will be next to Addenbrooke's, Royal Papworth Hospital and AstraZeneca.
"We're in a unique situation"
"We have got a unique setup where we've got the academia situation with Cambridge University and plans for the new cancer research hospital, to be able to bring together that clinical excellence to ensure we can diagnose cancer quicker," said Ms Brown.
"I think we're looking at different models of care where people can be treated closer to home and we're doing that.
"We work closely with regional partners, be that primary care or cancer alliance colleagues to make sure we're all working towards the same goal to make sure people are accessing diagnostic tests as quickly as they can."
More than ÂŁ2.3 billion to speed up cancer diagnosis
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said there is more work to be done.
“We are working to make access to cancer services faster and simpler. We have also invested £2.3 billion into speeding up diagnosis and launched 153 Community Diagnostic Centres across England, which will help us achieve our aim of catching 75% of all cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028.
“Smoking causes 1 in 4 cancer deaths and leads to 80,000 deaths per year. Our plans to stop children who are 15 this year or younger from ever legally being sold tobacco will protect future generations from various forms of cancer.”