Members requested at the 9 June 2016, Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, that this report be brought back for further update.

Funmi Worrell, Public Health Registrar, presented the report and thoroughly explained to Members that this report had been produced as part of the core Public Health offer to the National Health Service (NHS) Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and that the report and action plan considered all elements of the cancer care pathway, from prevention, screening and the referral process through to diagnosis, treatment and survival.

Funmi Worrell referred Members to the Cancer Action Implementation Plan which identified past and future actions made by the Thurrock Cancer Action Implementation Group.

The Chair thanked Funmi Worrell for the detailed report.

Councillor Watkins asked whether the screening services could be incorporated into secondary school activities to ensure that younger children are educated from an early age and possibly offering these screening services at events such as football matches or local promotion events to capture those patients that may be afraid or scared to have check-ups and may feel more comfortable in larger numbers to ask for information. Funmi Worrell stated that the most appropriate health actions would be taken and that not all services would be age appropriate. The aim would be to target audiences using campaigns and national promotions and informed Members that the Bowel Cancer campaign will be launched in January 2017.

Councillor Watkins asked what improvements had been made from the statistics provided. Funmi Worrell stated that the 2 week indicator of patient’s referral with suspected cancer and that the one year survival rates year had improved.

Councillor Fish stated that only 11 out of the 32 practice populations achieved the minimum 70 per cent coverage was a concern and asked Officers what concrete outcomes would be taken forward. Funmi Worrell stated that details of those practices performing poorly were available and targeted on how they could be improved. This item was also discussed at the Clinical Effectiveness Group.

Councillor Snell asked what was being done to identify those patients that missed appointments. Funmi Worrell stated that there was a system in place which contacted patients who had missed appointments to try and arrange another or the general practitioner would make contact to find out if there was an underlying problem with the patient not attending.

Councillor Sheridan asked Officers if anything could be done to educating residents to the dangers of using sun beds. Funmi Worrell commented that this was a big issue and that discussions between Public Health and Trading Standards had taken place.

Councillor Sheridan asked whether a “mole” chart could be made available especially in locker rooms in schools and gym changing rooms. Funmi Worrell stated that there was already a national campaign focussing on skin cancer in your people.

Councillor Collins asked Officers how the various lengths of time that survival rates were calculated.  Funmi Worrell stated information was available for 1 and 5 year cancer survival rates and that we had data for 10 and 20 year survival rates, however, this data should not be compared to survival rates today because the data was 10-20 years old. 

Ian Wake stated that advances in cancer treatment showed that survival rates were much higher today than they were decades ago due to innovations in screening, diagnosis and treatment over the years and that survival rates were different for different cancers and it might not be appropriate to compare the survival rates of one cancer to another.

Councillor Collins asked Officers for further information on the 10 year survival rates. Funmi Worrell agreed to send the findings to Members.

Councillor Snell suggested that the word “should” be removed from recommendation 1.2 to which all Members agreed.

RESOLVED

1.         That the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee comment on the contents of this report and action plans.

2.         That the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee support the work done by public health, CCG colleagues and other partners to improve cancer services and outcomes in Thurrock.