Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 8 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 10 December 2008. It was answered by Ann Keen (Labour) on Monday, 15 December 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Cancer: Medical Treatments

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps he plans to take to facilitate access to information on treatment choices for those with cancer;

Answer: We highlighted in the ““Cancer Reform Strategy: Maintaining momentum, building for the future—first annual report”” published on 1 December 2008, that major progress has been made over the past year on providing high quality information to cancer patients at each step in the care pathway. A copy of the strategy has been placed in the Library.The National Cancer Action Team (NCAT), with Cancer Networks across England and over 13 cancer charities, has been working to develop national cancer patient information pathways to support the delivery of information prescriptions to cancer patients.There are plans in early 2009 to look at a primary care module of the cancer patient information delivery tool for general practitioners and other community staff, to help them to ensure that patients living with cancer have access to high quality co-ordinated information.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 485 c441W; 242860
Session: 2008-09
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP2008-3019
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects: Cancer Medical treatments
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk