Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Yorkshire Outreach Programme for leukaemia monitoring; and whether he plans to roll that programme out nationally.

The Department commends the Yorkshire Outreach Programme for leukaemia monitoring, which supports more than 3,500 people across the region, and will consider the programme as we develop a new National Cancer Plan to improve patient outcomes.

For early-stage blood cancers, including leukaemia, early treatment is not always beneficial, with national and international clinical guidelines advising life-long monitoring to enable prompt intervention in the small group of patients who eventually need treatment. Models for monitoring these patients differ across England, with cancer alliances and integrated care boards rolling out programmes they have evaluated and have shown to improve benefits to patients, with oversight from NHS England.

The National Health Service is committed to ensuring that cancer patients have access to personalised care, including a needs assessment, a care plan, and health and wellbeing information and support. Personalised care includes provision of information, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer, ensuring that each person’s care is planned holistically, covering mental and physical health as well as any practical or financial concerns.