Radiotherapy
(asked on 6th September 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that reporting mechanisms are in place to inform the (a) public and (b) parliament how the nine statutory joint radiotherapy committees are improving access to modern radiotherapy.
The nine statutory joint committees between NHS England and multi-integrated care board (ICB) collaborations established on 1 April 2023 are working to improve access to specialised services by bringing together regional specialised commissioning expertise and integrated care systems (ICSs). These committees have joint responsibility for commissioning decisions on 59 specialised services, including radiotherapy. A list of these services is available at the following link:
Reporting mechanisms are in place as part of ICS governance, with ICB leaders publishing an annual report to their population stating what their health and healthcare services are delivering for their population and communities.
To ensure appropriate oversight and assurance of specialised services under the nine statutory joint committees in 2023/24, NHS England produced guidance for its regional teams and ICBs. The guidance sets out four key areas that NHS England's regional specialised commissioning teams, working with and through the joint committees, should be regularly overseeing and monitoring in relation to their specialised provision (including providers of radiotherapy services): timeliness of provision; quality of provision; use of resources and value for money; and equity and health inequalities.