General Information

The cancer services department provides support to all of the cancer site-specific services that the foundation rust offers, details of which can be accessed via the Cancer Services Directory. The cancer services department also has specific roles to play in making sure that patients referred to the foundation trust on suspicion of cancer are offered their first appointment swiftly and then progress along their care pathway in a timely way.

The cancer services department is dedicated to ensuring that the cancer services offered by the foundation trust comply with the national standards for the safety and quality of cancer services, which are assessed by the National Cancer Peer Review Process. The cancer services department takes seriously the need to monitor the trends in cancer incidence, the quality and timeliness of the care it offers and the outcomes for our cancer patients. The cancer services team undertake clinical audit work to provide this information, and participate fully in the National Clinical Audit Support Programme, whose goal is to provide national comparative audits of cancer care and outcomes across England. 

Fast-track referrals office 

The cancer services department hosts a dedicated referrals management office for patients referred on suspicion of cancer. The fast-track referrals office is located at Bradford Royal Infirmary and is the point of referral for all patients who are referred to our hospitals urgently with a suspicion of cancer. The team makes sure that all patients referred on suspicion of cancer are offered a date for an appointment or a first test within 14 days of the date of referral from the GP or dentist.  

Where possible the office will contact the patient by telephone to arrange a convenient appointment date. The majority of cancer services in the foundation trust now offer ‘straight to test’ facilities. This means that a member of the clinical team assesses the referrals and can advise that a patient is suitable to come straight for a test rather than to an outpatient appointment. This process means that a diagnosis can be reached more quickly. 

Multidisciplinary team meetings 

All cancer patients have their care and treatment discussed by a meeting of experts known as a multidisciplinary team meeting. The cancer services department co-ordinates these meetings and ensure that all the relevant clinical information is available to inform the discussion. The members of these meetings are all experts in different areas of cancer care, for example: 

• Physicians
• Surgeons
• Oncologists (specialists in chemotherapy and radiotherapy)
• Clinical nurse specialists
• Palliative care professionals
• Dieticians
• Speech and language therapists
• Specialist multidisciplinary team co-ordinators 

The meeting decides which cancer treatments to recommend to the patient as being the ones with the best prognosis and outcome for the particular patient. The multidisciplinary team only recommends treatments – patients always have a choice of treatments. There are nine multidisciplinary meetings at the hospital -they run every week of the year to ensure that patients have timely access to the expert recommendations of the group.  

Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring 

The government has set targets for the maximum time that patients should wait following referral for suspected cancer and to receive their first cancer treatment.

 In 2006/7 the foundation trust exceeded these targets: 

14 day target – 100 per cent

62 day target – 96 per cent

31 day target – 99 per cent 

Click on the link below to view how the foundation trust is performing against these targets in the latest reports published by the Department of Health.

Department of Health - Cancer Waiting Times Statistics

National Cancer Clinical Audit

There are a series of national cancer audits that NHS Trusts are recommended to participate in. The audits provide data so that the foundation trust can ensure that clinical standards are being met and compare its performance with other trusts in the England and Wales. The cancer services team collect for participation in all of the national cancer audits. For further information on the audits click on the link below.

The Information Centre - National clinical audits

National Cancer Peer Review 

Cancer services at all hospitals in the country are assessed for their quality and safety on an annual rolling program. The National Cancer Peer Review programme aims to improve care for people with cancer and their families by:

• ensuring services are as safe as possible

• improving the quality and effectiveness of care

• improving the patient and carer experience

• undertaking independent, fair reviews of services

 How to Access the Cancer Services Department

Further Information

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